Cheers @skeggley - maybe I should have borrowed some from you…
I was up in Darlington today helping transfer a nuc for a new flowhive owner.
I then went and bought some new frames and borrowed another nuc box from @Steve61 Thanks mate.
Last night I coaxed the bees into some cardboard boxes I had lying around. Must have captured the queen, as by morning bees flying out of the boxes and whatever left over swarm on the tree branch were gone as well. I threw in some old comb to entice them to stay.
There is 2 swarms by the way. 1 the size of a ice cream container whilst the main one is the size of soccer ball. My thinking that these are secondary and tertiary swarms - as I’d moved the queen into the nuc (this is the one I brought to Darlington today - sighted the queen) - am I correct in thinking this would have been the primary swarm?
I inspected the hive that issued the swarm. They were cranky as and I copped 2 stings on my finger and wrist I found a capped queen cell on the second frame, by the third frame I realised the hive was too hot to handle, so I closed them up.
I inspected my second hive. They were bursting at the seem and a lot nicer to handle. I took 2 frames of open brood as enticements for the swarms to stay. I put the brood frame in the middle flanked by fresh foundation frame and foundationless frames on the outside (my thinking is if they are in building mode, let them build).
I brought the nuc boxes over to the neighbours place and shook the cardboard boxes into the nuc. I spotted the queen in the larger swarm and she made her way into the frames. I dumped the remaining bees at the entrance and watched them march into the box. It was amazing to watch.
I performed similar routine with the smaller swarm - however, was not able to spot the queen.
Question - should I move the nucs back to my apiary tonight?
My thinking after reading this thread with responses from @JimM is that the bees and queen haven’t orientated to the new hive yet and if the queen hasn’t gone on a mating flight - I should do this rather than later other.