I have been asked to collect a number of local swarms this year. For these swarms or my own nucs of a similar age/size one in particular would not have survived to now without feeding. All the others have done well with plenty of pollen and nectar stores and plenty of brood of all ages. (Swarms can be poor so I keep a close eye on them and replace the queen at the earliest observation of flightiness/chalkbrood/whatever). However one caught swarm from the top of a compost bin (queen of unknown age) was given a decent quantity of syrup to get it going; but when I checked recently, I was surprised to see that it has very little pollen, very little honey stores but the frames are wall to wall with brood. Even when forage has dropped off over the past few weeks, the queen is filling any spare space with eggs and has not adjusted her laying accordingly which one might hope as autumn approaches.
I wonder whether I should give her a little nip and replace her as 'high maintenance' or if she will turn out to be a good'un next year?
I wonder whether I should give her a little nip and replace her as 'high maintenance' or if she will turn out to be a good'un next year?
May your bees read the same books as you do.