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Parent Hive management after Swarms

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Kathi:
I'm in my second year with my first hive.  This Spring it swarmed the end of May, and 16 days later a secondary swarm.  We caught both swarms.  On inspection of the parent hive there are still lots of bees and sealed queen cells.  What do I do with the parent hive?  Do I let it requeen itself, or buy a queen asap?  I'm getting conflicting advice on the need to get this hive back on track for winter in Nova Scotia.

Any advice much appreciated  :)

Kathi

apisbees:
It is still early and lots of time for a queen to mate and get laying again.

riverbee:
kathi,

please describe your parent hive for us, for example how many frames of bees, how many sealed queen cells, where are the cells located?

are you using langstroth equipment? 10 frame deeps? do you have one deep on or two deeps on? describe your set up.

are your frames all drawn?

Bakersdozen:
Kathi, I guess it would depend on your goals.  Are you prepared for the colony growth to stagnate and even decline a little until the queen hatches, mates, and then starts laying? Or, are you hoping to build the colony back up in time to get some honey from them?  If you want some honey, and if there is still a honey flow, you might want to buy a queen and save yourself a lot of time.  Are there any queens available to buy? apis says you have time for them to rear their own queen, so the choice is yours.  Unless the original colony has some characteristics I really like or I can't find a mated queen to buy, I like to requeen instead of waiting.  (A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush or is it a mated queen in a cage is worth 2 capped queen cells?   :laugh:)

Kathi:
More information on the parent hive:

Langstroth equipment with 2 10 frame deeps and 2 honey supers.  There are approx. 5 sealed queen cells between the 2 deeps.  All frames are drawn with lots of nectar and pollen.  I'd estimate maybe 10 frames of bees.

I'm not really hoping for honey this year given the swarming so my goal would be to manage the hive for bee health.  Also, I haven't got confirmation yet that I can get a queen this week.

Kathi

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