Sorry I could not find this answer, but I'm sure its out there. I recently captured a swarm and moved them to a 5 frame nuc box. On the entrance / exit I placed a queen excluder and thought all was well. I went out later afternoon to find all the bees outside the nuc (it was 93). I thought for sure the queen was still inside, but as I poked around I noticed her outside. I quickly got a new nuc box with a sceen bottom (figured it was to hot inside). I sprayed them down with sugar syrup and was able to get the queen inside the new box. Later than night after they all had gone in, I placed screen on the etrance / exit.
So now that they are locked up, how long before I open the door? I did a quick feeder with a 20oz bottle and 1:1 syrup through a 1 1/4 inch hole in the roof. I do not have brood to spare to put in with them to make them stay and I do not have any drawn comb for them either. This is my first year a beekeeping.
Thanks for any adivse
Jason
Well I guess I can respond to my post. I kept them locked in for 24 hours, after removing the screen from the entrance with in two hours they were bringing in pollen. They had consumed 20oz of the 1:1 syrup in the 24 hour time frame. The next day I removed the queen excluder off (just incase she was a virgin) and all seems to be going well. Those bees are the first hive working in the AM and the last ones to come in at night. Seems pretty crazy to compare them to the three packages I have sitting in the same yard.
Jason
Glad things worked out for you.
Just a note to remember: using a queen excluder with a swarm is usually worthless. In order to swarm, the queen stops laying a few days beforehand in order to slim down so she can fly. The slimmed-down queens often have no problems going thru an excluder.