My First Swarm! & Questions...

[Hobie]

Got home yesterday and apparently my colony had swarmed. There were bees buzzing around the entrance to where an old colony lived in the barn wall (that I forgot to seal.... oops.) But then I noticed a small swarm hanging on a little oak tree! Got out a box and a ladder and scooped them in. I must have gotten the queen because this morning there were no more bees on the tree.

Anyway, the questions:

1) Was the swarm in the tree a second swarm from the same hive? Or were the bees buzzing around the old barn wall entrance just scouts? (There were quite a few of them.) Is there any way to tell?

2) If it was a second swarm, where is the old queen? And who is queen of this swarm? And who is left in the original hive?

3) Right now the swarm is in a single deep with a queen "includer" and no inner cover. When can I take the includer out and open the top?

4) The swarm is in a 10-frame deep with 9 frames of drawn comb and one with a starter strip. (Don't ask, it was what was handy.) I have more drawn comb, but I want to start regressing to natural size cells. I have heard that swarms build lots of comb. How should I put the empty frames in the box? Every other frame in the single box? A second box on top with all empty frames? (That may be too much space for them now.)

Comment: When I was done, my gloves were bristling with stingers. I stand by my decision to wear gloves!!! Of course, it was 8pm and raining, which probably did not help.

Thanks to everyone who posts here... from everything I read and photos you have posted, I managed to do this sucessfully (I hope!)

[beegee]

The little cluster on the tree may have included the queen. What about the barn...any bees in there?

You should go ahead and arrange your hive like you want it, feed sugar syrup. If they are on a nectar flow, they'll likely ignore the syrup. Check for signs of the queen in a few days. if you don't find eggs and small larvae in 5-7 days, you'll need to get a queen. Have you checked your originating hive for queen activity? I'd keep the swarm in a single box until I knew I had a laying queen and they were cleaning the drawn comb and bringing in pollen and nectar.

[Hobie]

It was raining hard this morning, so I could not see bees in the barn (It's just a hole in the siding.) Looking in the entrances, I saw some in the original hive, and two in the new box. Will check again in better weather.

Will they actually swarm and hang in a tree with no queen?

[iddee]

# 3...In 3 to 7 days.

#4...When you open it in a few days, all the bees will be on 2 or 3 frames. You can replace any of the 6 or 7 empty drawn comb frames then. I would not give them another box. It may even be better to put them in a 5 frame nuc until they get a good foothold. Keep the entrance reduced to an inch or less to prevent robbing. FEED!!!!!

If it was a second swarm, the queen may be unmated. I would remove the includer after 48 hours.