I have a swarm hive that was caught about 4 weeks ago and used brood frame with them. This hive was doing just as you described little to no activity. I ordered a queen with 2 day delivery and the same day found what I think is the queen that had hatched out and removed her. The queen arrived yesterday and 2 hours after putting her cage in the hive the hive explode with activity. Now I was advised in chat last night that I may not have given the new queen time to get her act together, and by the time line I was given it is very possible I didn't. I am very new to this so this is my observations no more no less. Good luck
Not much happening in caught swarm!?
We caught our first swarm last Friday (May 14), but are not completely sure if we captured the queen because the swarm was 15 feet up in a tree and we caught them at night. We're beekeeping beginners and don't know what to look for in a swarm hive. Basically we put the swarm of bees into a 10 frame super with waxed foundation frames. We've been feeding them them sugar water daily. Everyday we check the hive from the outside entrance and the bees don't seem to leave the hive. They walk to the feeder, drink from it, and walk back into the hive (we don't see them fly from the hive). We opened and checked the hive this evening (six days after capture) and the bees were clustered between the hive box wall and the outermost frame. There was no signs of comb building. Is this normal? Or does this seem to indicate that there is no queen? We have another established strong hive of bees. Should we take a brood frame from that hive and put it in the new swarm hive to get them started? Any help or suggestions are appreciated.
