# tiny swarm



## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

ifixoldhouses said:


> I vacuumed up a tiny swarm in the neighbors yard, about 500 bees, no queen? what do ya'll think they were doing? crazy stuff I dumped them in a nuc box.


They actually could have a smallish virgin queen.
Hard to spot.
Not really crazy, just a very late swarm.
Feed and watch.


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## ifixoldhouses (Feb 27, 2019)

I shook them out in the yard, then I spotted the queen, she's big and black, So I put them in a medium nuc with 2 frames of brood, and 3 drawn combs. I put the queen in a cage with a candy plug to keep her there. I don't think it came from my apiary, maybe a neighbor somewhere.

Take a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_j3jyA7H1I


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## ifixoldhouses (Feb 27, 2019)

I've caught another tiny swarm in my yard, with a marked queen, must be mine. I'm leaving her in the queen clip in a med drawn frame nucbox, with sugar feed, and about 500-1000 bees for now. I can't access my hives till the 14 day formic acid treatment is done, Tuesday. Maybe I'll find a queenless hive and put em back, or else I can beef these up somehow. Here's the video to this one https://youtu.be/HeFr6-Z2Pxc


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Cool. With any luck you will not find a queenless hive and will be adding to your apiary. Pretty late to try and get a mated queen from a swarmed hive, even in NC.


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## ifixoldhouses (Feb 27, 2019)

There's a marked queen in the tiny swarm, what's in the big hive I wonder? I can't look until Tuesday:s


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## ifixoldhouses (Feb 27, 2019)

I caught another one, unmarked queen, and alot bigger swarm, was on the back of one of the hives.


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

All of your queens are marked, right? I hope these swarms make it. Drawn comb and plenty of feed and they will have a fighting chance.


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## ifixoldhouses (Feb 27, 2019)

yes, 11 of the 12 hives are marked, Must be supersecdures or coming from somewhere else, can't tell till the 14 day Formic is over, last time I'm doing that, I got a Provap 110 from now on.

Here's the latest swarm, pretty good size to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uwMFnjfKBU


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Tiny swarms in fall are often bees absconding due to mites. However absconding swarms take all the bees in the hive, and your video shows plenty of bees in your hives still.

Was going to suggest they are from elsewhere, but too much of a coincidence to have 3 of them show up in your own yard if they are from elsewhere.

Wonder if it is something to do with the formic acid.

Anyhow I'll follow the thread with interest.


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## ifixoldhouses (Feb 27, 2019)

It's **** hot, and the screened bottoms are closed, 2 1/2 days to go on the formic pro, most of the hives are pretty high population. I have jars of sugar syrup honey in there , and made some ultra bee patties, I put them in with 5 medium drawn combs, till some more Bettercomb gets here. I'll shake some extra bees in once I get into the other hives. OR I might find a missing queen, and can introduce one of these.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

I haven't used formic for several years, but now I think about it, i did see queens being chased aggressively a few times when the hive was being treated. Lost the odd queen also, maybe they were out in a tree somewhere with a few hundred bees. :shhhh:


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## ifixoldhouses (Feb 27, 2019)

I found the hive the marked queen came from, it was slammed full of bees, but not an egg, larvea, or capped brood in the whole thing. 
I tried to combine with newspaper, I think the queen flew out and went in the bottom, under the paper, I'll check it again Saturday still 95 degrees around here.
The other two swarms are doing good, one is laying it up, and I marked and released the queen in another, and shook some bees in with it, 
10 bettercombs coming tomorrow, maybe I can get them full of syrup before it gets cold.


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## ifixoldhouses (Feb 27, 2019)

I found another queenless hive, and added one of the tiny swarm queens
made a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRtwzFzIRVk


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

This time of year one needs to be careful about adding a queen to a "queenless" hive. Many queens stop laying around this time and a seemingly queenless hive will still have a healthy queen. The new queen stands a real good chance of being killed if you are not absolutely certain the hive is indeed queenless. Lack of eggs and brood is not a reliable indicator.


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## ifixoldhouses (Feb 27, 2019)

Yeah, I thought of that, but all the other hives are full of brood, and if there was no queen that colony is dead, and those tiny nucs are more than likely dead, so at least I know there's a queen in there now  I left one in a queen clip for 2 hours, and they didn't kill her, I released it after I realized they could get to her anyway.


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## ifixoldhouses (Feb 27, 2019)

I finally went through them all, and only 3 looked queenless, I just left the last swarm in the nuc, will check that last queenless looking one next week. 2 of them must have superseded, may be better to have NC genes plus Saskatraz, we'll see.


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