[JustinH]

My TBH swarmed on May 31. I caught the swarm and shook it into a medium hive body with empty foundationless frames. I have not looked in that hive since putting them in there but I see them coming and going. I can only assume that the queen is in there and that they are drawing comb. I have two other hives that are doing great and have at least 2 full supers of honey on them. Should I add one of those supers to this new swarm hive instead of harvesting it so they have good food? Or just let them get their own food?

 

[delber]

Justin, I assume that you still have a flow on there right? If so there's no need to feed. They're bringing in plenty. I would get in there and check things out though. They may be making a mess of things. My general rule is I leave a swarm alone for about a week or less depending upon what kind of comb guide they have or if I'm using foundation then I'm not too concerned. After a week I check to see if there's a queen, what the stores look like, what the comb looks like etc. Then I go from there. I caught a swarm last week that the queen seemed very small. I thought she could have been a virgin. So I let them go until a week and they're drawing comb very nicely, but there's no brood. If I still find no brood this Thursday then I'll add a frame of eggs to this hive. This is my process. I hope this helps. Oh the swarm that I checked had plenty of stores already. Nothing capped, but several - most of the 7 or so frames had stores in them with some empty / open space on the bottom of the frames. (I'm using foundation less / comb guide frames)

 

[Vance G]

A full super of honey conservatively is worth a couple hundred bucks. Give the money to charity or a food bank if you don't need it but bees will gather their own chow or you can feed them granulated sugar to fill their brood box if necessary. Do you think the foundationless frames are drawn so the frames are moveable now? I would try to straighten things out and the bees do probably need more room so I would add a box.

 

[JustinH]

Do you think the foundationless frames are drawn so the frames are moveable now? I would try to straighten things out and the bees do probably need more room so I would add a box.

I plan on inspecting this Friday. Weather pending.