Advice needed for Small Swarm

[janeoh]

Hi All, I picked up a swarm but there are only about 50 worker bees. Will this be enough to keep them going until laying and hatching begins?

I have placed them in a nuc box with some 1:1 sugar syrup.

Is there anything else I can do as I would love to keep them as they are very mild mannered?

Jane

[gavin]

Likely to be a lost cause without somehow adding more bees, but do try to prove me wrong! Even getting a virgin mated and laying a few eggs may be beyond them, and building these to a viable size for winter seems unlikely. Also bear in mind that even 5-frame nucs often don't show much sign of the nature of the bees when they are boiling over in three full boxes, so mild now doesn't mean much.

But Apideas are a good way to meet bees for the first time.

[janeoh]

Thanks Gavin, I thought it might be a long shot, whatever happens though it has been a valuable experience. I am sure I will learn a lot trying to keep them alive.

[Jon]

You need about 400 bees for an Apidea so I don't think it has any chance in a nuc box.
It will get robbed out if you put sugar syrup in as this attracts robbers.
50 bees would not be enough to cover brood even in an Apidea.
If it has a queen, best thing would be to put her in an introduction cage and introduce her to a decent amount of bees.
You don't get a swarm with only 50 bees in it. It could be a clipped queen from a colony which has swarmed with a little coterie of bees around her or else the remnant of a swarm which has been collected by someone else.
Is there definitely a queen?

[janeoh]

The bees are clustering so I believe the queen is there. The swarm had been on a rose Bush since Friday so I was called in on day 3. There were more bees but they seem to have dwindled in number over time.

[Jon]

That sounds exactly like what you get after a swarm has been collected or has moved on by itself.
A couple of hundred scout bees or stragglers often get left behind as the swarm has moved on when they return.
They stay in the same place as the site has a smell of queen pheromone where the swarm settled.
I don't think you will have a queen in it.
Bees cluster when they are cold.

[janeoh]

I will have a closer look tomorrow when they have had a chance to calm down. I thought I saw her but can't be sure, the veil does not help either.

Theoretically tho' if I have a queen would introducing a frame of brood from another colony help at all?

[madasafish]

I doubt if you have enough bees to cover one side of a frame of brood .. let alone two.

[janeoh]

They have been extended their abdomen and fluttering their wings when moved. Would they do that if it is only workers present?

[Jon]

If there are only 50 bees a queen should be pretty obvious. I doubt you have one.
Bees stick their ass in the air when they feel they are under threat. The wing movement will be to try and generate heat. A few bees like this cannot keep warm.