# Tiny swarm



## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

Several about the size of a base ball. Usually see these small swarms in the fall. Lost several before I figured out exactly what to; threat them like a queen and make a split using 3-4 frames of brood and bees from another hive. Combine them with a screen until they get use to each other.


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

I got one middle of April maybe a little bigger than a softball, maybe, that's about to fill an 8 frame medium and need another box. No help no feed so far,of course the time of year was almost perfect. Took them awhile to get rollin but I think they're over the hump.


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## GaryG74 (Apr 9, 2014)

Small football sized swarms in the Fall. Added nurse bees and/or frames of brood to fill 5 frame nuc. Added medium nuc box on top with couple full frames of honey to get through Winter. About half made it through winter but turned into gang buster hives the first year.


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## RickR (Mar 19, 2010)

Got a call from a panicked homeowner about a huge swarm of honeybees in his backyard. I arrived to find a lemon sized cluster of bees hanging on a shrub. I clipped off the toothpick sized twig they were on, put them in a box, carried them home, and put them in a nuc. The next day I found their little queen dead in the bottom of the nuc. I find softball sized after swarms around the apiary every year.


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## RichardsonTX (Jul 3, 2011)

I had one of these go into my garage where I was storing some hive bodies with frames. I thought it was just the bees being persistant and staying in the hive bodies where there was a little honey they'd discovered while I had the door open some in the spring (I keep it cracked open about 8" at the bottom almost always when not open though). But, when I went to use the frames for making up a nuc I noticed capped brood so I set them on a bottom board thinking they'd probably wither away. Now, 2-1/2 months later they are a double deep with brood/food stores in both hive bodies.


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

The smallest? Maybe half of a football in early July of 15. I placed them in a 5 frame medium nuc box with drawn comb. I checked on them about two weeks later and had to add another box. Before winter they were filling up their fourth ten frame medium. This spring I split them... twice. This reminds me, I need to split them again.


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## Outdoor N8 (Aug 7, 2015)

All good to know.
One week ago, I picked up a small one. They were wrapped around the trunk of a 4', potted, decorative Fir. It was, for being a 'nerf football' group, the most difficult capture I've done yet!
Took forever, scoop 10 bees, shake onto nuke top board, look for queen; repeat for the next hour. Never did find a queen, and a preponderance of fuzzy young- after-swarm.

Will give then two more weeks before deciding on combining them or not.


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## Outdoor N8 (Aug 7, 2015)

Not enough patience-

Looked in on them today, had eggs. Multiple eggs per cell. 

so, laying workers? or new inexperienced queen?


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## Joe Mac (Jun 1, 2016)

Are the eggs in the bottom of the cells or are some on the sides of the cells? Laying workers will lay some eggs on the sides of the cells because it's difficult for them to reach the bottom every time. I doubt that you have laying workers since it's been less than 2 weeks since you hived them. Probably was a virgin queen when you hived them and she's potent, inexperienced and ready to lay lots of eggs and doesn't have enough bees to cover much comb, so she's pumping more than one to a cell. I had a hive that I bought as a nuc earlier this year and at first the queen was laying more than one egg per cell, but as they have expanded I haven't seen multiple eggs since.


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## GaryG74 (Apr 9, 2014)

Agree with Joe Mac, not enough time to go laying worker. Probably trying to get the hang of laying and not enough comb. If she had more drawn comb and bees to cover the brood, she would probably take off like wild fire. Can you add a frame of drawn, empty comb plus a frame of nurse bees and capped larva?


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## Outdoor N8 (Aug 7, 2015)

Yeah, the math says virgin queen doesn't it. 
If I had some drawn comb I'd give it to them, but I do have plenty of capped brood.


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## bison (Apr 27, 2011)

I've caught a few baseball sized swarms. Most were small after swarms, the best was a small swarm in about September of last year that I got from a tree. Had a marked queen and I took it as a challenge to get them thru the winter. Put them in a nuc with drawn comb and fed them thru the winter, it came thru and went gangbusters this spring.


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## Outdoor N8 (Aug 7, 2015)

Some days are made, just so you laugh at your self .
Went and checked on the swarm I had added two frames to (2 days ago); fully expecting to find them making queens, from the OTS spots in the open brood. Nope! in fact, they had repaired them. So I go through the frames, the one side of the capped brood had all hatched, and every cell had been relaid with a perfect egg! I get to the frame with the multiple eggs per cell; all straightened out and the queen cup with the 8-9 eggs from two days ago is absent/ torn down.
Oh crap! I transferred the queen from the donor hive by accident!
So I begin to look for her, a huge abdomen, bright yellow queen. Third time through the box, there hidden under bees in the frame trough at the bottom - is a new 'tiger' queen!
What does the Beekeper know-


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