Please help

[Feckless Drone]

Did you add the queen on a comb of unsealed brood? A really good beekeeper advised me against doing this. He thinks that a colony that has swarmed do not expect to find brood in their new hive. If they do, then they are more likely to want to swarm again.
Kitta

Might not belong on this thread but here goes -

So - MC, when you do an artificial swarm do you remove the Q from the frame and place her in a hive with absolutely no brood? I am wondering if the brood aspects might explain why after Demaree/Snelgrove approach the mother Q still decides to swarm. And Kemosabe raised the point about Demaree on another thread, then picked up as a way of torturing the drones. DR - do you use Demaree, get Q-cells started then put the Snelgrove board in or do you wait until Q-cells started then just insert the Snelgrove board. I've started using the boards and I do like the approach. Maybe even using this through the winter to help with smaller colonies being kept above really strong ones so benefiting from the under floor heating.

[Mellifera Crofter]

... So - MC, when you do an artificial swarm do you remove the Q from the frame and place her in a hive with absolutely no brood? I am wondering if the brood aspects might explain why after Demaree/Snelgrove approach the mother Q still decides to swarm. ...

Yes, FD - no brood at all. The beekeeper I mentioned thought that their swarming instinct will not have been satisfied if they found brood in their new home.
Kitta

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi FC
I never have used the Demaree method
The other thread was about simple queen raising
In the case of someone with one or two hives it is an option

The idea of Snelgrove board is you must get the split made and the board in before the bees start any swarming preparations
If you wait till they have started swarming preparations it's too late
So if you see queen cells then using a Snelgrove board wont work they will swarm anyway
(there is a method 2 for hives that have started swarm preparations I have used it and don't think it's reliable)
I have posted long descriptions of making a split with a Snelgrove board already on the forum so I won't do it again here
(The forum heaves a collective sigh of relief)

[The Drone Ranger]

[QUOTE= DR - do you use Demaree, get Q-cells started then put the Snelgrove board in or do you wait until Q-cells started then just insert the Snelgrove board. I've started using the boards and I do like the approach. Maybe even using this through the winter to help with smaller colonies being kept above really strong ones so benefiting from the under floor heating.[/QUOTE]

Just in case you are going to use a Snelgrove board here's a fairly clear write up
http://www.barnsleybeekeepers.org.uk/snelgrove.html
Snelgrove's original method waits longer before inserting the board this way is fine
If you find queen cells when you go to do this you will be in trouble as I said in prev post