[Cameron Daley]

A neighbors hive swarmed today. I went over and captured it for her and put it in a 5 frame nuc temporarily until I can move it to my apiary. I put the nuc about 20 feet away from her hive. I'm just wondering if I need to worry about the swarmed bees deciding to return to the original hive, thereby shrinking the swarm to a point where it won't survive.

Additional information: She had her bees in a single deep which appeared to be honey bound during my inspection. I added a second deep box with foundation prior to catching the swarm.

 

[Erik]

A neighbors hive swarmed today. I went over and captured it for her and put it in a 5 frame nuc temporarily until I can move it to my apiary. I put the nuc about 20 feet away from her hive. I'm just wondering if I need to worry about the swarmed bees deciding to return to the original hive, thereby shrinking the swarm to a point where it won't survive.

I've collected swarms and get calls from the homeowner/resident days later that there are still remaining bees where I collected the swarm from. My experience is once they've decided to leave, they don't go back.

Additional information: She had her bees in a single deep which appeared to be honey bound during my inspection. I added a second deep box with foundation prior to catching the swarm.

Try baiting up, moving up 1-2 frames of brood from the bottom up to the second box. That'll draw up the nurse bees into the new box and maybe speed up the queen's access for room to lay. Once they've filled up the brood area with honey they may have made up their mind to swarm so check back for queen cells that you might want to remove for growing out elsewhere. Just leave them one or two in case the queen has already left.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm#opening