Swarm in my unused box?

1

I had my lower box and frames sitting below an oak tree that my nuk was in last year and now noticed that there are bees using frames( still with comb in them)
So I set it back up, there’s fly’s going in/ out with bees so I hope the bees win out!
Any thoughts on what to do?

2

Celebrate? :rofl: Sounds like you have caught a swarm! If they are in a proper hive, I would suit up, inspect them in a week or so and see if you have a viable colony. If they are in some sort of temporary box, you are going to need to house them properly to get them through the winter.

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There in my flow hive I had last year( first year)
I want to do a inspection of them this weekend to make sure no wax moths are in it or shb and I’ll probably add a couple shb traps with oil, thanks!

4

Give the swarm time to settle in before doing an inspection, I would hold off for a week or two till there is brood in the cells and less likely the bees will abscond from being disturbed by the inspection.
Then do a serious inspection for any signs of an issue or disease.
Great you have housed a swarm Matt, even thou it seems you got them by accident. Wild hives are not a good thing for a bee keeper or for the environment.
SHB traps are a great idea in a weak colony, the SHB is a real issue in my parts.
Cheers

5

Ok, just sitting watching them work for now then…
I’ll look at them next weekend

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6

Well, after letting them sit and do there thing for a week I did alter my corafalute slide to have a border of small wood to hold some food grade DE to kill off shb/ any other pests left in brood frames.
When opening up the hive to look at the frames I would estimate there only to be maybe a couple dozen bees…( Not enough to keep shb at bay in my mind)
I added 2 beetle traps anyway while I had it open( just in case the shb numbers increase)
I’m just not convinced this will end in any kind of hive stong enough to be successful (being so late in year) and not a technical swarm caught/ deposited into hive or a queened colony…
Should I just pull frames/ freeze them and give up?
Thanks fellas/ ladies :+1:

7

Sounds more like there was never a swarm in there and the box was just being robbed out by another nearby hive and the flies you mentioned earlier.