Help. Hiving a swarm?

[L Daxon]

Help.  I just caught a swarm and have it sealed in a cardboard box. I want to add it to the packaged bees I just hived 10 days ago. (I just resumed beekeeping after a 20 year hiatus). How do I do add the swarm to the package bees? Put one hive body on top of the other, spearated by newspaper and a queen excluder?  I don't know if I got the queen with the swarm or not.  I literally had to take the swarm out of the tree a handfull at a time as they were all over a number of thick main branches of a yapoon holly and I was trying to do a little damage to the tree as possible.  Suggestions please?  I don't have enough wooden ware to start a second hive (no bottom to top boards) and can't run and get'em as I have 8 medium equipment and only off the shelf stuff here in OKC is 10 frame regular.
Linda Daxon

[AllenF]

Yes you can add them with a new box on top with slit newspaper in between.  But you are likely to loose one of your queens.   And with your 8 frame boxes, a temp top and bottom can be made from anything, plywood, cardboard, whatever, just use what you have for now.   They will take to your box just fine (make sure you at least have frames in there). 

[Superdog]

I wouldn't loose the chance at a second hive.  If you have no frames, or hive bodies, just put them in any box you can get.  Like idaxon said, you could make one up out of any wood.  If you don't have frames, put slats of wood for them to draw out on.  You can move the comb over to the new box and frames when they come in.  If you don't want a second hive, then just put a piece of paper between the two and let them combine.  Hopefully the queen with the best genetics will survive.

[jhs494]

Please be careful leaving them sealed in a cardboard box too long. They could overheat and end up dead while you decide what you are going to do.
JMTC. Good luck!

[L Daxon]

Thanks for the suggestions and advice.  I only kept the swarm boxed about an hour tops and even then I had small air holes in the box for ventilation.  I had a top feeder on the package hive body and jut put a queen excluder on top of that then a sheet of newspaper. Then the second hive body w/plastic frames and dumped the swarm in. I put on the inner cover then proped up the telescoping top enough to get a broadman feeder in and used an entrance reducer to restrict the opening in the top so the swarm bees could come and go.  I did all this about 5 p.m. and by 7:30 p.m. everybody seemed happy as clams.  I sprayed the swarm with a lot of sugar water that had a little Pro Health (lemongrass oil, wintergreen, essential oils, etc.) mixed in, which is the same stuff I used when I hived the package.  I wonder if the smell of the essential oils masked the smell of the swarm, or at best made the swarm bees seem familiar to the package bees as the top hive feeder also has that Pro Heatlh in it to the package bees are used to that smell.  I only saw one pair of bees mixing it up in front of the hive so there didn't seem to be any raiding or fighting going on.

How long does it take them to eat through the newspaper?  I should be able to tell in a week or so if I got the queen with the swarm.  If it doesn't look like there is any egg laying going on up top, I'll just remove the queen excluder an combine the two.  If I do have two queens, I think I might let both produce brood for a while to give my popultion a boost.  I got a late start this season and I want to get as much build up as I can before the honey flow starts, which if memory serves me correctly will be in mid-June through July. . . . .I am a 60 yr. old lady and this is the first swarm I every caught.  I am so excited!