Update. I left the bees undisturbed for three weeks, now they are at day 35 since inhabiting the Dadant "feeding chamber". Today, I checked the frames in the brood box, and they have only drawn about one side of a frame. No eggs visible in here (but remember there were eggs and larvae in the new comb in the feedbox three weeks ago).
In the meantime, I've discovered Warre hives through this forum and read both Warre's book and articles by David Heaf (
https://warre.biobees.com/index.html).
I also followed videos by Christophe Koppel in French (L'apiculture en warré par Christophe Köppel:
).
This seems an ideal hive to start a small hive, and I like a lot the idea of the hive being designed for the bees. And I found a second hand Warre in need of some TLC. Now cleaned a little and re-oiled with linseed oil a week ago, its ready for its new bees. Moving the bees to this hive frees up the Dadant, to be repurposed as a swarm trap.
I built a board matching Dadant to Warre out of old pallet wood. Placed the (new) Warre hive behind and to one side of the (old) Dadant, placed the matching board and a queen excluder on top. Moved the feeding chamber containing the brood and queen and its inner cover and roof over to the Warre without opening this brood chamber. Placed a board in front of the new hive to act as a ramp for the bees remaining in the brood box. Shook frame by frame onto the board and tipped the brood box onto its side, touching the ramp. Used some smoke and brushing to encourage bees to leave the old box. One or two found their way to the new hive and signalled to the others, which started a march towards it, while returning foragers circled in confusion.
Will let them alone for a week and then take out the queen excluder, and probably add a second Warre box below in a couple of weeks, as two Warre boxes are needed to be equivalent to a single chamber of other hive types.
Photos of the last step clearing bees from Dadant main box to Warre. Isn't a Warre tiny!
