Swarm 9/30/13

[Jacobs]

I picked up around 2 quarts of bees late this afternoon in South Greensboro. The swarm is in a 5 frame nuc, and after they settle in a little bit, I'll look for a queen. I used my swarm bucket and the bees fanned from the top some, but not nearly as enthusiastically as earlier swarms did. If they don't have a queen, there are enough bees to make combining with another small hive worthwhile.

[Jacobs]

The bees must like their new home so far. It looks like about 2 and a half medium frames of bees with a small queen. She is already laying eggs, so I'll see how she does.

[Jacobs]

This hive really surprised me--the bees never occupied more than the original 2+ medium frames and made it over winter. When I needed to take a frame of nurse bees and brood out of the observation hive to avoid overcrowding, I put it in this nuc. The additional workers have allowed this queen to increase her egg laying, and she is now filling multiple frames very nicely.

[B_Lee]

Seems to be a great example the you need more that a good queen for a colony to thrive. All ages of workers is a must.

[Jacobs]

What you said is true, plus a queen will not lay to her capacity if there are not enough workers to take care of the brood. Boosting a small group of bees and queen with a frame of capped brood, eggs, larvae, and nurse bees is one way to evaluate what a queen may be capable of doing.