capture swarm instant un-regress ?

[malabarchillin]

I have 4 hives but I am thinking about beelining to try to find a feral colony.
If you are unable to get enough feral comb how will they behave to the larger
cell comb/foundation I use normally ?
Regards
Mike

[Bill W.]

Larger cell size won't be any problem, but why not just go foundationless if you are going to go to the trouble of finding some natural-sized bees?  Even if you don't get a full hive worth of comb, they will go ahead and draw it out.

[malabarchillin]

I was not sure if they would draw out comb or abscond.
This is a growth year for me and all four hives have been realllllllllllllllllly
slow at drawing out this spring.

[Bill W.]

So long as you get some comb with brood and you get the queen, odds are pretty good they'll stay.  You really want to get some comb, since the bees in an established hive won't be as prepared to draw comb as a swarm.  The less of the comb you get, the more they struggle.

Are you thinking about finding a hive this year?  It is probably getting a bit late for that.  Might be best to find one and remove it in the Spring.

[malabarchillin]

thanks,
Agree on finding them for spring, although our fall flow here could be enough for winter if they
had drawn comb.