I gathered a nice big swarm in early May and took them home. Since I was running out of wax and had some plastic cell. I figured a swarm likes to build so why not stick them on plastic that I brushed some extra melted beeswax on? I put on and "includer"(a queen excluder but put inside to keep the queen in the hive) for a couple days to keep them there then after a couple days took it off. A day or two went by and I watched them swarm out of the box into a cherry tree of mine. I made up a box of wax foundation and starter strip frames and put the girls swarm in it. They drew wax but made a mess even w/ the alternating wax/stater strip frames. They eventually filled the hive up pretty good. I tried a plastic cell super covered in honey on top of the deep which they cleaned up but didnt build very well so I removed it. Then I read about some folks putting an empty box under the filled box to move the girls down. What the heck? I like to try new things. They stayed in that hive setup until a couple days ago. Barely building anything in the lower box at all. A few frames on one sire maybe. Well then they swarmed again!!!
This time I had a weak hive(but tough in the past and very recently they requeened themselves) I had in another place that had just started getting wax worms(1 frame bad and a couple just starting to get web tracks) They had some brood but not much so I combined them with the swarm on top and an excluder in the middle w/ paper in between the box's(thinking on saving the queen :roll: ). I am about to go look and see if the last 1 1/2 days have been enough time that they have combined. I am hoping that the change in scenery will keep the swarming girls happy and stay and also the extra bees will help the weak hive. I'd like the new queen in the weak hive to get a chance but not sure if I will save either that way I tried :?: We'll see. I also just got a late swarm call and will pick up in the morning. I may need them in the girls decide to leave again!!!
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