Swarm Removal

[cdray]

I removed a colony that swarmed in last Sat. They had 4 pieces of comb but I couldn't find any eggs and I didn't see the queen, (I'm guessing a virgin), hopefully I vacuumed her. I plan on putting in a frame of eggs, so I guess we'll see.  David

[BeeMaster2]

CD,
The way to tell if you vacuumed up the queen is that you will start to see the bees being attracted to the exhaust of the vacuum.
Nice looking hive, were you able to save the comb? If you did not see any eggs on the comb, you probably have a vergin queen.
Jim

[cdray]

Hi Jim,
 I was not able to save any comb. It was so new, it was falling apart. I did watch the exhaust of the vacuum and did not see any bees attracted to it so I may have missed her. Again, there were no eggs at all so yes, probably a virgin. We'll see what they do with a frame of eggs.

[BeeMaster2]

Keep us posted.
Jim

[blanc]

I have removed a few like it and missed the queen but week later found her in the mix. That has been the most challenging for me is finding her doing removals because 99 percent of the time I am suited up and vision gets impaired.
Blanc

[AllenF]

Give them a frame of eggs is the way to go.

[BeeMaster2]

Ditto on the eggs. If they need a queen, they will make one, if not in will give the hive a boost and more time if she is a virgin.
Jim

[cdray]

Last night, winter returned to Alabama. It finally made it into the high 50's around 11:00 am and I got the bees set up in a medium. I put in a frame that had eggs, open brood and some capped. I 'll check them next week and see if we have queen cells.....and report back. David

[cdray]

Well, we have a queen...a laying queen. :-D  I didn't see her but I see eggs and there aren't any queen cells on the frame I dropped in.. David

[CVBees]

Good news.!!   X:X

[buzzbee]

Excellent. You guys are having a great track record. :)