Small swarm--- how long before queen can lay

[PLAN-B]

Caught a small swarm last week and being a newbie I didn't have any drawn out frames to put them on, nor any brood frames to put with them to boost numbers. Put them in a five frame medium Nuc on wax foundation. Question is how long would it typically take for the workers to draw out sufficient comb to allow the queen to start laying? Like I said the swarm couldn't have been bigger than a softball but I do see them working extremely hard bringing in pollen, etc... Any info or past experiences would be appreciated...

[asprince]

If you feed them all they want, they have a mated queen, and the SHB's don't take over, a week to ten days.


Steve   

[gov1623]

I had about a 3 lb swarm draw out all 5 foundation less frames in a nuc in less than a week. Swarms are comb building machines. The queen should start laying in the first piece of comb they start drawing out.

[capt44]

I had a swarm last year about the same size as yours.
But I put a frame of honey and brood in the nuc box.
I put them on 1-1 sugar syrup with Pro Health from MannlakeLTD
There were eggs in 10 days.
It's good to put brood into the Nuc for you don't really know how old the worker bees are.

[PLAN-B]

Thanks for the comments. Hopefully they are queen right and she will start laying soon...  :)

[Finski]

... Any info or past experiences would be appreciated...

They surely know what they do. You need not worry about speed what they do.

Small swarms means normally that queen is virgin. It takes about 7-10 days that swarm queen starts to lay.

To mated queen it often takes 3 days that it starts to lay.

The swarm is soft ball size! it is under minimum. It covers only one medium frames.

[bailey]

Plan b. 
what you doing today?
I have a med comb to lend you
Bailey

[PLAN-B]

Plan b. 
what you doing today?
I have a med comb to lend you
Bailey

Thanks for offering Bailey. I will be at work all day until 5:00 and then have an hour drive to the house... Sure would be on my way if I was able...... Peeked in yesterday and even though there isn't a ton of bees I did not see the queen with my unskilled eye... They wouldn't hang around and draw out comb and bring in pollen if the queen wasn't present at all would they?  And to everyone else I truly appreciate all advice and comments...