Just recaptured a swarm

[slangers]

I was just popping out to feed my bees this afternoon when one of the colonies decided to swarm. Fantastic sight, which I have never seen before. And the noise!

Fortunately they landed in a tree in a garden a couple of doors down, so I was able to recapture them immediately. I now have them in a nuc box with a frame of brood from the original colony and some empty frames. The nuc box has a disk excluder on the front so the queen is basically stuck in there but the flyers are still working.

Newbie question is 'what should I do now'? At the moment the nuc box is sitting on a bench about 2 metres from where the original hive is. Should I move it further away? If I leave them alone for a while will the queen settle down again and build me a nice new nuc colony?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Position is fine but put them in a full size box

Empty frames....do you mean foundation?
Swarms are foundation drawing machines, capitalise on it.
As they came from your own apiary you can give them a little syrup to help them get those frames done.....then let them get on with it.

 

[slangers]

Yes foundation. Am I OK leaving them so close to the original site?

 

[dexter's shed]

mine swarmed yesterday, they are around 8ft away no problem, cant see a reason for adding brood, would a swarm normally take a frame of that with them then ??
or any reason to shut the queen in???
after all, it's why they swarm in the first place
if it's a nuc, get all the space filled with frames and let them get on with it



swarmed from the national cedar hive in front of them, now housed in a nuc, no locked door or brood

 

[Erichalfbee]

Adding a frame of brood is a recognised swarm anchor, though I have never bothered.
If the swarm is a good sized prime one then a nuc might be too small.

 

[slangers]

I don't have another hive for them to go to, so what should I do? Look to unite with another hive later in the year?

 

[Erichalfbee]

2 supers and an eke will suffice for now. You can cobble a floor up and some sort of roof then go shopping.

 

[oliver90owner]

Erichalfbee means for a 14 x 12. Two shallows is more than enough for deep frames. A shallow and an eke would suffice.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes....oops

 

[slangers]

Thanks folks