SWARM keep in Nuc or in Hive ?

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Location
nottinghamshire
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Hi
Caught quite a decent sized swarm last night and its in a 5 frame nuc box , 1 frame taken with honey .Its quite big for the box but o.k . I have put it on top of an empty hive that I want to move it into that has used brood comb in ( ALL HEALTHY ) .

Would you now leave them for a week to build comb and settle in as not to get them to fly off or would you tonight after work move them straight into a nice big hive that's waiting for them . There is a possibility they might move themselves but the nuc is straight on top of the hive roof so its in the same spot .

Thx Alan
 
At the moment its early morning there are quite a number out climbing over the front of the nuc and doing location flights …...going to be onteresting to see if they stay .
 
If worried about absconding put a queen excluder over entrance or under brood box.
Whether to transfer into hive depends on size of swarm. If they do not cover fully all five frames then keep them in nuc. If you transfer, you might add another couple of frames and then dummy down. Only add more frames as they grow
 
I'd move them into the full sized hive asap and use dummy boards to restrict to 6 or 7 frames. A swarm will build comb and numbers quickly, and with the weather warming up, I would have concerns about the nuc- box overheating.
 
And what's all that about?

Hi Look im new if ive done something wrong then hey ho but I thought a frame of honey would be good for them as a start.

Size of swarm ….you can see in pic .
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There are probably two points regarding feeding honey. It seems to be common practice not to feed for 3-4 days so that they use up the honey they are carrying thereby reducing the spread of diseases. The other consideration is that honey is generally valued higher than sugar so most would feed syrup and keep the honey.
Please bear in mind that these answers are drawn from reading, not personal experience, and I am willing to be corrected by those that have the experience.

Good size swarm though:)
 
Hi Look im new if ive done something wrong then hey ho but I thought a frame of honey would be good for them as a start.

Size of swarm ….you can see in pic .
attachment.php

The usual wisdom is don't feed for 2-3 days (foulbrood), however from all the lectures and magazine publications of Wally Shaw he feeds them straight away for a faster build up to get honey surplus out of them.
That is a sizeable swarm, I remember when I was in my teens going to collect a swarm that was too big for my 5 frame nuc, never again.
 
There are probably two points regarding feeding honey. It seems to be common practice not to feed for 3-4 days so that they use up the honey they are carrying thereby reducing the spread of diseases. The other consideration is that honey is generally valued higher than sugar so most would feed syrup and keep the honey.
Please bear in mind that these answers are drawn from reading, not personal experience, and I am willing to be corrected by those that have the experience.

Good size swarm though:)

I know one beekeeper 30 minutes drive from me who has one hive dedicated to frames of honey to open feed his hives.
 
And that is absolutely his choice. I didn't say it was wrong, merely tried to explain why many people don't feed honey to swarms.
 
And that is absolutely his choice..

And also totally irresponsible - open feeding whether honey or syrup is never wise or acceptable.
as for leaving a frame of honey in with the swarm, it achieves nothing, they have their own stores and they won't use that to build comb. If you want them to build comb then feed them syrup and they'll go off like a train.
Picked up a small swarm in the rainthe other day and haven't really had the opportunity to check them or feed them (I do like to hold off feeding for a couple of days after hiving) they've alredy drawn four frames in the nuc filled one completely with honey and are working on drawing the other two frames
 
Hi Look im new if ive done something wrong then hey ho but I thought a frame of honey would be good for them as a start.

Size of swarm ….you can see in pic .
attachment.php

That looks like a goodly swarm, I think drex in post 3 gave sage advice. As for feeding - I personally would do so especially if I gave them several frames of foundation.
 
Hi All ,

Please don't jump on me as Ive been doing it for a few years and this is 2nd swarm ive collected , but im no expert and don't pretend to be . Right I read a post above and I tended to agree with it that the swarm was to big for the 5 frame nuc, which I had placed on top of the hive, I want to keep it in .

So I have gone up tonight, to change it over to the hive which has a brood and a half on but I did take 5 frames out of the brood to pop in the nuc with this in mind . Your going to say im lieing ,but honest to god WOW .

I went into the brood box and it was smothered on the remaining frames left in ( 5 I had taken out ) , I checked the super ( which im using as the brood half ) that is smothered . I then go and take the top of the nuc its smothered .

Im a novice at collecting this is my 2nd swarm , and WOW what a swarm more like a whole hive !! . I haven't checked for the queen as I didn't want to upset them anymore and ive left them to it there also quite good natured at the moment .

Basically im wondering if the queen had already moved out of the nuc and into the Brood and a half and there were loads of stragglers still in the nuc , but all frames were still covered in the nuc .
 
With something this big I don't see the harm in giving them the space they have loads of drawn out healthy comb to go at from last year its disease free .
 
The swarm you can see on the fence there was also some more on the other side about a 1/4 of what you can see in the pic was on the other side .
 
For that size swarm I wouldn't dummy down, it needs the space. You are in a slightly cooler climate than me, there are enough in there to maintain temperature.
 
For that size swarm I wouldn't dummy down, it needs the space. You are in a slightly cooler climate than me, there are enough in there to maintain temperature.

:iagree: Most swarms will cope with being dumped in a full hive - it's what they aim for in the first place anyhow
 

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