swarm in 27406 zip code

[Becky Hampton]

Myassistant principal has been watching a swarm for a few days that's hanging on a realty sign at 4012 Melissa Laine Road, Greensboro in zip code 27406 if anybody wants it.

[Jacobs]

I picked up about a pint of unhappy bees this morning.

[Becky Hampton]

Thanks!

[Jacobs]

Yesterday I put this small swarm in a nuc with 1 partial frame of honey, and the robbing began. Today I caged the queen and a few of her helpers and used her in a high risk gamble on my one hive whose queen did not survive the half treatment of MAQS. My hive was calm and had polished cells, but no brood, eggs or larvae. The queen cells that were in it a week ago had been torn down.

I placed the cage on top of frames and watched the hive bees react. They gathered on the cage and did not appear hostile. I did a direct release, and the queen walked down between frames. I'm going to give it a week and check back to see what has happened. If I do not see signs of a functioning queen, I will take steps to combine these bees with another functioning hive. If this does work, it was well worth the effort to pick up this small swarm. If it does not work, at least I gave it a shot and had some fun playing in the bees.

[Becky Hampton]

I'm glad you posted that. I was wondering what you do with a small hive like that in late September. They wouldn't have time to build up any stores for winter. I hope the queen works out for you.

[Jacobs]

I just couldn't wait a week, so I checked the hive yesterday. I saw several frames with nicely placed eggs in the traditional brood pattern areas. I then saw a nice plump queen on a frame. She was much larger than the queen I put in the hive on Friday. I don't know if this is the same queen ( would she plump up that quickly after having swarmed and been out of the original hive for several days?) or had the hive actually requeened itself? If this is not the same queen, they would have to have dispatched the introduced one, and this one just happened to start laying between the time I introduced the queen and my examination yesterday.

It's a bit of a mystery to me.