[tabby]

I *think* we might have caught a swarm in our swarm catcher. 3 or 4 weeks ago we put an 8 frame deep up on the grape arbor with 1 frame of old comb and some lemon grass oil on a q-tip. There was zero activity around this box until today - there was nothing in the comb to rob.
Just a few minutes ago I noticed bees going in an out like it's a regular hive. Since it's only got one frame we're concerned the bees are going to make a mess in there. Assuming we actually got a swarm, how soon can we go in an add more frames? One week? Two?

 

[Colobee]

I'd check it now. If you have a swarm, it will stay put overnight. They will need more frames right away if you don't want a real mess. They are likely already building comb

What part of Arvada are you in? I'm across from the (CR) outlet malls.

 

[tomkat]

Unless you have a flow going, feed them.
Since you only have one frame of drawn comb they are going to be busy building comb. And I would check them ASAP

 

[tabby]

I'd check it now. If you have a swarm, it will stay put overnight. They will need more frames right away if you don't want a real mess. They are likely already building comb

What part of Arvada are you in? I'm across from the (CR) outlet malls.

I'm just off of Indiana Street, a few miles south of Rocky Flats.
It's getting too dark to do anything right now, but we'll check them tomorrow.

There's a flow going on right now. The fruit trees are almost done, but a lot of other stuff is blooming thanks to some recent rains.

 

[Mr.Beeman]

Check to see if they are bringing in pollen. If not it may just be some bees checking to see if they can rob anything out.

 

[homesteader824]

Yes, they can quickly make a mess of comb. I'll tell you about the two swarms I caught.

My swarm traps are old 10-frame deeps with 1 frame of old comb and 9 empty frames with the wedge top bars turned for foundationless. These are medium frames (I'm switching over to 8-frame mediums). The first swarm I caught was small--probably an after-swarm. They are neatly drawing comb from the tops of the bars. It was no problem switching them over to their permanent home.

The second swarm I caught turned out to be huge in size. The trap had the same setup as above. I thought I'd let them get settled in before I checked on them and moved them to a new hive. In a week they made a terrible mess. There was comb drawn at 45 degree angles to the frames, comb that was wavy and occupied two frames' area, and even comb that started out good but then twisted as it went down. They had even started some from the bottom of the frames; this was my fault for using medium frames in a deep, but I had my reasons. I had to tear out a lot of comb, and the girls were not happy with me. I put foundation in the empty frames and probably will not give this hive the chance to mess up again on foundationless frames.

In the future, I will probably let a swarm stay about one day, and then transfer over to their permanent hive.

 

[Colobee]

That little puppy might make a nice observation hive. Or nurse it to a re-queening nuc. I doubt it will do much else this year. I've almost always combined small swarms, but that may be the smallest one I've ever seen.