Hi there…
I purchased my first Nuc back in late November of 2020…
Everything has been going great, super was put on once bees filled out the brood box and the bees seemed to be working there new space well.
About two days ago my hive unfortunately swarmed on me. Luckily I was able to capture the swarm and now have them setup in another hive. The swarm was MASSIVE, I found it weird that they swarmed so quickly as they had plenty of space to work in the super.
Anyway now I have a parent colony and the swarmed colony. Should I be feeding both these colonies or reducing their entrances? Any advice until next week when I do a hive inspection looking for queen activity.
It’s currently The middle of February heading toward the end of summer
You answer your own queston. The swarm was massive. There were too many bees there, despite the space. Swarming can be prompted by crowding but is related to the distribution of queen phermone throughout the hive. Also possible that the old queen might be failing and this can prompt swarming and then subsequent supercedure.
Your immediate concern now should be the parent hive and the possibility of secondary and cast swarms in the coming days, which can considerably weaken it. The new queen there will also need to mate successfully.
I would leave the new hive alone except that I would feed it as they will need to draw out a lot of comb now.
The parent hive needs an urgent inspection to check for unemerged queen cells.
If you find any, look at step 7 in this booklet.
