I watched a large swarm move into my bait hive yesterday evening, the hive is a 8 frame deep 10 feet up on the side of a tree. Today there are bees coming and going in the entrance, but there is a large bee ball attached under the hive and building wax. Should I let them work it out, or do I try to collect into another box?
I'd post a picture but I can't figure out how.
There is a good chance you have 2 hives. I recommend you leave them for one week to let them build out the frames and fill them with brood.
If they are still building comb at that time, treat them like 2 hives. Hopefully you have them on a rope. Lower them down to where you can work on them and cut the hanging comb and put then empty frames with rubber bands holding them in place. Make sure you keep them upright. Then place the other hive in your new location. I would leave them in that location until night fall and then move them. Put a branch in front of the hives to force them to reorient to the new location.
Good luck.
Jim
Thanks Jim,
We had bad weather coming last night, so I decided to vac the bees off the comb and look for the queen. I found her, she is a mated queen. I got her in a catcher hung it from a frame, and the bees followed her in. All in the box now.
In a week, bee sure to check the trap for signs of a queen. You may have another mated queen if 2 swarms took off at the same time. You may also have a virgin queen in there and in a weeks time she is just barely starting. Only look until you see eggs or larvae or the queen. In other words, minimum disturbance. Put everything back the way you found it.
Jim