next step with capured bees

[dpn]

In may an abandoned house near my work (very inner city type place)was being torn down. In the process a hive was found in the walls. Being the ever frugal and always wanting to have a few hives on my property, i offered to remove them.The owner wanted to call an exterminator, but she finally saw things my way. one day later i came home with 1 1/2 boxes (the type and size described in the bee vac plans on this site) of bees.I set up a hive box and placed removible swarm catching frames(also from the plans section)containing brood comb in the middle then honey comb and pollen comb. in an alternating fashion starting from the center of the box. Afew days later i notice the bees seemed crowded so i added a super containing frames with foundation sheets.

Thats the back ground. One thing i know i did wrong was i requeened without finding and killing the original queen, but i was unable to remove all of the bees from site and am not sure if i even got her. Now that summer is coming to a close, that is if winter ever comes to southeast mississippi, i want to insure my bees carry thourgh the colder months. when sould i start removing the swarm frames and replace them with real frames. i havent opened the box since i put the new queen in -its been a month now. any pointers in where to go next? i realize i may have done the whole thing incorrectly, but i quess its better than being exterminated by orkin. any help is greatly appreciated.

DPN

[Michael Bush]

If you're in doubt about getting throught he winter, just leave the swarm frames in. You can try to cull them out in the spring. Feed them a lot and maybe they will do fine.

[BILLY BOB]

Yea, I'd wait till spring...(Jan. or Feb.) and dig into them and see if the frames are being used. If not, take'em out and put in drawn cone or foundation.

Once they start to draw out foundation in the spring start moving the swarm frames that are being used to the sides and put new foundation in the middle. You'll have to go slow just one or two frames at a time untill all the frames are out.

On some large hives that I've removed. It has taken 2 years to take all the swarm frames out. Swarm frames don't hirt anything. I've had many boxes that have added to the original cone and filled out the hole frame.

BB