REGARDING           RE>small swarm
 
Michael Moroney writes:
>I am a not that experienced hobbiest, and right now I have one live hive. I
had
>another hive at a friend's that died over the winter.  I caught a small
>(softball sized) swarm and put it in the dead hive.  It seems to have a nice
>mated queen in it.  Can I expect the small swarm to amount to anything? The
>hive has plenty of honey in it but the pollen is rotten to put it mildly.
It's
>in an area that seems to be very good for pollen and honey (upstate NY).
 
A new swarm, large or small, will do a good job of cleaning out debris from a
dead colony.  If nothing else, they will be good for your equipment.
However, they can become a real asset if you can find another swarm to put
with them.  It is possible that in a good year such a small swarm could build
up to overwintering size, but I would recommend that you combine it with
another swarm if you can.  At this time of the year you can just dump the new
swarm into the small existing colony, and they will get along with no
problems.  They will sort out the queen situation for themselves.
 
Ted Fischer