a swarm settled into one of my empty boxes. the queen was marked but i had no idea who owned the colony so i kept it.
i moved my bees a distance of over 600 kilometers. 120 boxes total. before the actual move, i fed them a lot to ensure adequate stores. we nailed down the boxes to the bottom boards {these wre single full colonies}, installed inner covers that has a screened middle portion for ventilation which were also nailed down. on the day of the actual move, we nailed shut the entrance reducers and removed the outer cover. leaving the screened inner cover.
as we loaded them into the ten wheeler truck, we sprayed the screened inner cover with water. the trip should have taken 16 hours but on the way it got caught in a typhoon and had to stop and wait the worse of the typhoon out. it arrived in the destination 24 hours later and the typhoon was still too strong to set it up. we put the bees in a shed to wait for better weatherwhich came the next day after lunch. then and only then were we able to open the boxes. they were cooped up for almost 60 hours.
i lost only 1 queen in that trip which isnt bad considering the weather conditions and being cooped up that long. we had to feed ASAP because they had eaten all their reserves which was to be expected.