[dynemd]

Last nite I had a standard fiber plant pot type swarm trap from Mann Lake with a package of their swarm lure tacked up inside to which I added some dark beeswax shavings and a cottonball with a few drops of lemongrass, rose and tea tree oils. Placed it up in a tree in my front yard about 14 feet high. About noon today I noticed about 20 bees crawling around the entrance hole and two hours later a tornado swarm of bees came and landed on the front and slowly entered the trap. My guess would be slightly over two pounds of bees. I checked and they're not from my own hive.

Now my question, I would like the bees to be hived in my back yard about 50 yards away. I've got a 5 frame nuc and some deep 10 frame boxes available as well as supers. When have they settled in enough for me to transfer them to my box and can I use the deep? How do I transfer them and is it OK to move them 50 yards? How quickly do they form new comb and if it's there should I move it into some frames to the new hive? I don't want to scare them off and I plan on feeding them for a couple weeks with some 1:1 syrup.

 

[KPeacock]

there are two basic thoughts on this. the first is, move them now and all is well. he second though is wait till they have brood and then mvoe them. depending on what you believe, either could be correct. I'll give you soem fot eh pros and cons of each, and let you decide.

Moving now:
Pro: you can reset your trap and maybe catch afterswarm
bees have not fixed on that location yet
they should be full of honey and quite docile still
Con: They may abscond if you mess with them
you could damage the queen in handling them.

Waiting for brood
Pro: very unlikely to abscond due to brood
if it had a virgin queen, you don't risk moving them while the Q is out "making friends"
gives you time to figure out exactly where you want them to be placed
Con: you have to wait
you may have problems with bees orienting to the bait hive location
poor weather and poorly made swarm traps can lead to dead bees.

There are lots of other thigns to consider, but these are the ones the pop into mind. I use 10-frame dees for swarms and i choose to leave them for a while, but they're just drawing out standard comb, so I"m not out anything by waiting for them. if you have to cut out.destroy comb from your trap, then you might want to move them sooner.

 

[RustyKnight]

Since it's a flower pot style swarm trap, I'd say move them now. You don't want to have to do a cut out from your swarm trap. They will be making comb now. It is not necessary to move that comb unless there have already been eggs laid in it. If you have a feeder on the new location they will be induced to stay. They could abscond from either the new location or your flower pot. If you have a queen excluder you could put that between your brood box and bottom board to "trap" the queen in your new box. They will not leave without her. My advice is move them as soon as you can

 

[tommyt]

Move them ASAP. And put a frame of brood from your other hive in with them
The brood will keep them (most times) they're bees ,don't read and break rules

 

[dynemd]

Gentlemen, thanks for your advice. Much appreciated!

 

[MrHappy]

One of there greatest things I got is the front entrance queen excluder. I put this on the front of my hives for the first week of any swarm I catch. This makes sure the queen can't get out after I dump the bees in the new hive. I do it only for a week to make sure she stays and makes the new hive a home for at least a week. If they leave after that, they weren't going to stay no matter what. Mann Lake had a sale on them a little while ago so I grabbed them, but it has already saved me one swarm that tried to take off as soon as I placed them.

 

[Edymnion]

Agreed, move them now.

If you had been using a nuc or an old deep with frames in them as your bait hives, I would have said to wait, but not with the flower pot style. You don't want them building comb in there if you can help it.

Basically, treat them like a new package. Just wait until dusk, take out the middle frame(s) of the hive you want to put them in, and pour 'em in there. Tap out any stubborn ones, put the frame back in, close up the hive.

By waiting until its almost dark, you'll be highly unlikely to have them decide to fly away on you until at least morning, and by that time a swarm in a nice spot will probably have spent the night working on comb. And once that happens, they're pretty much staying anyway.

 

[AugustC]

Flower pot swarm trap so move now before they orient. If the swarm trap had been a deep with frames then I would have suggested waiting til they had brood. Shift them now and put a queen excluder over the entrance (only time I would use a queen excluder). Make sure the is no light getting in, so if you have a screen bottom cover it. Put the swarm back in the original location and catch swarm no: 2.

 

[odfrank]

1. Never use traps other than your standard equipment so that you don't have to do a cut out.
2. Trap in the spot you want the hive to reside, so you don't have to disorientate them moving it in the same yard. Or move minutes after they have entered.
3. Don't trap up in hard and dangerous spots to access.