Any advise for a newbie catching a swarm from the garden?

[Dawn_SD]

@Jamarick

Ill have my gear monday and ill go ahead and put them in a box to transfer them to the hive and look for a queen

Are you prepared for the need to rubber band any comb that they may have built on the branch?

Comb building below a frame

Mark, There is a lot about your original post that made me nervous. It’s excellent you now have bees, but acquiring bees in a used box like this can be very risky with regard to diseases as you don’t know why the original colony absconded. Another concern is that the colony that has taken up residence is small, which may not be an issue (ie. secondary swarm), but you should keep an extremely close eye on the brood that this colony produces for things like chalk/afb/nosema as it may be staying s…

@Jamarick

I left a qtip in the box with lemongrass should i take it out

If it is not in a plastic bag, yes - there is probably enough scent in the box now. If it is in a plastic bag, I might leave it until the swarm has started building comb in the box.