I walked outside a few mins ago to a yard full of bees. I watched where they lit and balled up, so I can collect them. I have one extra deep with frames, but no bottom board... what can I do?
A piece of plywood or or even card board and 3 sticks 3/4" thick one for the back and the other 2 for the sides. Cut the branch off and shake them off the branch in to the super, or shake the bees into a cardboard box then dump then into the hive. Once you have the swarm hived go thru the parent colony and check for queen cells be careful as the developing queen in cells are fragile. Do not turning the frame upside down, shake the bees off the frames, us a brush. Cull all but a couple of cells, pick long cells that are capped to save. A couple of extra cells can be put in a nuc with a couple of frames of bees as insurance in case something happens to the new queen for the hive and she is lost before she is back in the hive and laying.
I happen to have some 3\4 laying around, so that's exactly what I did. I had few extra games with honey so I put those in, added a queen excluder on the bottom, dumped in the swarm, and used a plastic storage box lid for the top with a concrete block to hold it down. Hopefully that will hold them until I can get new equipment.
Beekeepers are an inventive bunch. I made a bunch of temp bottom boards my first year after catching a bunch of swarms I wasn't prepared for. A piece of plywood makes a suitable top too.
