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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Julie Daniels <jld921 AT gmail.com>
  • To: "ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org" <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] multi-swarm-recovery-plan needed
  • Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2017 20:50:10 -0400

Hello.  I have tried to describe my question succinctly, but it involves multiple hives, so it is a bit convoluted (and wordy):

Last Saturday, my large 2016 hive (hive A) swarmed.  It was a huge swarm, but the hive was large/overpopulated.  We caught the swarm and started a new hive (hive C).  We found the 2016 marked queen on the ground and scooped her up to the lip of the hive, then watched attendants usher her in, she looked okay - but a bit slow.  I've fed all week. Upon inspection of new hive C yesterday, they have drawn comb and collected nectar, but no signs of the queen or eggs.

When inspecting old hive A yesterday, I saw multiple queen cups in the center of the frame (one open, a couple closed, and one cracked with visible larvae.  Still fairly large population. Tons of capped brood. No visible eggs.  Bees were grumpy.  I didn't see a new queen, but didn't look hard.  

Today, a smaller swarm occurred. We collected it and put it in a new box (hive D). Unfortunately, I think I stepped on the new queen.  I'm not completely sure she was the queen, but we put the potential queen on the lip of the hive and attendants were very interested in her for a while (like they were trying to revive her), then kicked the corpse off the lip.  (hard to tell for sure if she was a queen).  I am not certain which hive this swarm came from, but I suspect A.  

The last hive in my yard is Hive B:  6 weeks old, made from a split, and has a working queen and brood, but is still smallish.

I'm trying to consider the best next steps for hives A,C,D. 
Question 1.  Because D is not large, and I don't really want 4 hives to monitor, I could combine it with another small hive.  
My options to add Hive D to:
Hive A.  Given D may not have a queen, could it go back to the original hive (I think it was from A)? This is the largest hive, but has sufficient space now. or if it came from there, would they just leave again?  And not for sure on A's queen status.
Hive C.  The new hive from last week's swarm could be strengthened if combined with new smaller swarm (C+D).  Not sure of C's queen status given I did not see queen/eggs yesterday.
Hive B.  I know it has a queen, but is still smallish.  Because the queen status is known, might this be a safer route?

I assume I would need to do the newspaper trick for any of these.  

Question 2. I'm concerned that I did not see the 2016 queen (or eggs) in Hive C (after 1 week).  She laid consistently in her former hive.  I worry she died, even though we saw her enter the hive with the swarm capture.  Can I wait another week to look for signs of eggs, or should I go ahead and buy a queen now? 

Sorry this was so wordy.  Any advice will be appreciated.
Julie




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