Just Caught A Swarm...Now What?

[simmonds]

Just hot a call today for a swarm in an apartment complex tree.  Julie and I headed over and were able to catch the swarm with a 5 gallon bucket on a length of PVC. Most of them dropped in a bucket but the ball of bees was so big that alot of them fell straight down and on top of us!!!  :shock:  I had to climb the tree and cut the branch which slowly fell to the ground which made it possible to cut the section of branch out with the remaining bees.  It was really tricky and the bees were not at all calm after all the commotion, but they did calm down enough after a while to get the entire swarm into a large plastic bin.  This was NOT an easy swarm capture for our first job and we probably should have passed on it, but...

Anyway, they are doing good and are in the bin in my garage at the moment.  My question is, will the bees be fine in this plastic bin until sometime tomorrow when I can get a hive set up?  Do they need fed for now or will they be fine until tomorrow afternoon?  What kind of set up should I do for these bees in their new hive to make them feel at home and hopefully make them want to stick around. 

Thanks for the help.

Chris and Julie

[vmmartin]

If it was me, i would go ahead and get them in a hive.  They are in the "build build build mode and i would not want them expending unnecessary resources building comb in the bin when they could be drawing it out on the frames.  Beyond that, try to find the queen asap and get her in a catcher until they establish themselves (a day or two) and then I would let her out into her new home. Hope it works out on your first catch. Cool ain't it? Congrats.

[simmonds]

If it was me, i would go ahead and get them in a hive.  They are in the "build build build mode and i would not want them expending unnecessary resources building comb in the bin when they could be drawing it out on the frames.  Beyond that, try to find the queen asap and get her in a catcher until they establish themselves (a day or two) and then I would let her out into her new home. Hope it works out on your first catch. Cool ain't it? Congrats.

Thanks for the great advice...problem is, I have deeps, frames and foundations, but have no lids or bottom boards until tomorrow afternoon.  I was going to pass on this swarm because of that until the guy on the phone told me they usually just use "bee-bop" on them and kill them before they enter the HVAC systems in the complex!  :shock:   We didn't want to risk them spraying this swarm so we went out and got them.  Most beeks in the area would turn them down because of the height of the branch they were on.

Will they really start drawing comb that fast over night in the plastic bin even though they are in "swarm mode" and still have the piece of branch with them in the plastic bin?

thanks

[iddee]

Put the deep on a piece of plywood or a table. Put a small stick under the deep to give them an entrance. Place a piece of plywood on the top and lay a weight on it. Do this where you want the hive permanently. Then add the top and bottom tomorrow.

PS. They are drawing comb right now.

[vmmartin]

Will they really start drawing comb that fast over night in the plastic bin even though they are in "swarm mode" and still have the piece of branch with them in the plastic bin?

Bees amaze me anyway, but especially at how fast a new swarm will build comb.  It should not surprise us though.  Their very survival and continuation depends on getting that comb built. 

[howardaj31]

picked up a swarm a couple weeks ago, to make a long story short, they were at the beginning of entering a trailer at 5pm and at 6am when I went to get them, they had 2 sections of comb built already.  Other swarms I have observed being in a spot for just a few hours, you will see white wax all over the area where they were.  That swarm filled 5 frames of foundation within the week.  Im saying youve probably got comb in that bin.  get them in a hive even if you just have to put them on top of a piece of plywood with one on top

[simmonds]

Last night Julie and I went out to see about getting them in a Deep and decided it would just have to wait until this afternoon.  Our light circuit at the shop failed (probably mice) so we had no lighting out there and being miles off the highway it is pitch black.  I brought in the bin and cut a couple 2 inch holes in the sides and covered them with metal screen and duct tape for ventilation and also put two on the lid, one for ventilation and one to put a can of syrup.  The bees this morning seem to be doing fine and we can see no visible comb in there so far.  Thanks for the suggestions and we know that that would have been the right thing to do with this swarm but it just was not possible.  I will get them set up today.

One thing of interest is that there is at least 2, maybe 3 distinct balls of bees in the bin.  One large cluster in one top corner and a smaller cluster in a opposite corner.  Down at the bottom of the bin on the branch there is another mass of bees but they seem a little busier than the ones in the cluster at the top.  We also noticed that the swarm at its location when we went to get them looked to have two balls of bees side by side on the branch.  Is it possible that we have 2 or maybe 3 queens in this same swarm?  If so how should we go about hiving them?  And finally a real noob question...once we pull the lid off this box, what is the easiest way to rummage through and find the queen(s)?

Thanks again.

[Kathyp]

yes, you might have more than one queen.  not a big thing.  since you are short on experience and equipment, i'd just dump them all in one hive.  it's not uncommon for a hive to have more than one queen, or a laying queen and a virgin or two. 

in the future  ;)  have equipment ready to go...more that one box.  it's ok to keep them in whatever, but you have less chance of losing the and they will get a quicker start if you can hive them right when you get them.  we have kind of a short season.
  be prepared for the odd swarm that will take more than one box.  for me, it has only happened a couple of times, but when you need more room, you need more room.

[D Semple]

Yes, sounds like you have multiple queens.

I would try to seperate the swarms by gently removing the lid with the one swarm attached and shake that group into one hive and then dump the other two small groups into a seperate hive. Space them about 6' apart and see what happens. If one of the two hives is queenless it will join the other on it's own in short order.   

I don't bother searching for queens, I'm not good at finding them, I just dump the bees in and watch what happens.

Have fun, take some pictures and post them up!

Don

[vmmartin]

So what happened?  :pop: I am curious.