>Let me tell you, I have heard a lot of bad advice lately. A friend told me that she was advised not to look at her newly hived swarm for two weeks. I suggested looking in right away to see if she even got the queen. In two days she should see eggs. ....The main swarm period could be over in two weeks! I agree with the above, but I was wishing to re-visit. In my experience, the prime swarm will lay up brood first, -so identifying that the hive has a laying queen would a rather simple procedure for a newbee. And could be performed between 2 to 4 days after colony initiation. Where a difficulty may arise, is if the newbee has a cast on her hands. The cast will generally set up honey stores during the first week or longer. The queen, being smaller and a bit more shy are sometimes difficult to find. If a newbee is unable to spot the queen, these symptoms may appear to a newbee to be strong evidence that the colony is queenless. See: Swarm Nomenclature. at: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/ The advice I have always given newbees for many years is to 'keep your options open by providing options.' I suggest to newbees who insist on keeping many colonies, to as little as a single colony -to keep a few nucs on hand. If you have questions with a new swarm, you can let it play out a bit longer without much worry. By placing swarms from the prime swarm season (which may last less than 3 weeks) in nucs, you will not 'miss out' on the prime swarming season, and you will not suffer a set back in your beekeeping experience. Best Wishes, Joe Waggle http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/FeralBeeProject/ *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm