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My last year's hive swarmed and went up in a tree about 50' away from the hive and 15' up on a tree limb. I was able to throw a trap together really quick and got it hung underneath it about 6' off the ground. I didn't have any drawn out frames to put in the trap due to the speed I had to throw it together and I was hanging it at 9pm so I wasn't going into an existing hive to rob some at that time of night. It has 5 frames with foundation in it. The swarm is still up in the tree but I see a lot of bees going in and out of the trap. I can't tell if the swarm has drawn out comb on the limb they are congregated on but I was wondering, how long should it take them to move? Will they move if there is comb up there? Will they draw some comb out before they move to the trap? I can't easily get inside the trap to see what is going on as the cover is screwed on.
Also as a side note, the original hive seems to be queenless and still massive even given the swarm. They are much louder than normal when I opened the hive and more aggressive which I have read are good indicators there isn't one. I can find no eggs and everything in the hive is either capped or the larvae that are about to be capped. There are a large number of empty cells. I fear I destroyed some of the swarm cells trying to inspect the hive as they were built spanning the frames between the upper and lower brood boxes so I ripped them apart pulling the frames out. I found one intact queen cell that looked like a queen had emerged. It was fully drawn out but there was no cap on it. It was empty so maybe she has already emerged, if so would they still be loud and aggressive if she isn't laying yet? I know the queen can leave before the new queen emerges, my question is how long should I wait to see if I actually have a queen or if I inadvertently destroyed her.
I have a brand new hive that I just setup. Once that queen is released would pulling one frame she laid in and swapping it with a capped brood from the old hive be a good move to get them to create a new queen?
Also as a side note, the original hive seems to be queenless and still massive even given the swarm. They are much louder than normal when I opened the hive and more aggressive which I have read are good indicators there isn't one. I can find no eggs and everything in the hive is either capped or the larvae that are about to be capped. There are a large number of empty cells. I fear I destroyed some of the swarm cells trying to inspect the hive as they were built spanning the frames between the upper and lower brood boxes so I ripped them apart pulling the frames out. I found one intact queen cell that looked like a queen had emerged. It was fully drawn out but there was no cap on it. It was empty so maybe she has already emerged, if so would they still be loud and aggressive if she isn't laying yet? I know the queen can leave before the new queen emerges, my question is how long should I wait to see if I actually have a queen or if I inadvertently destroyed her.
I have a brand new hive that I just setup. Once that queen is released would pulling one frame she laid in and swapping it with a capped brood from the old hive be a good move to get them to create a new queen?