Caught a swarm today !

[Fishing-Nut]

My bees have been working like its spring time around here bringing in all different colors of pollen and loading up on nectar..... I decided to set up my swarm boxes again. Well today I catch a swarm that's a little bigger than a football. I put them in a 5 frame nuc with drawn comb. Was that a good decision? I usually just put a swarm on foundation and let them do there own comb building, but I think with it being real late in the season that may be a big help to them. What do y'all say?

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Hey Fishnut: I think placing drawn comb was an excellent idea.  I question why a swarm so late in the season.  One of two reasons: either the bees are running to something (new home) or the bees are running away from something.

I had a hive abscond about 2 weeks ago, after inspection of the empty hive I found about 30 capped live brood, no stores, no eggs, no larva.  Clearly this was a planned departure. [how do bees plan this] I open some capped brood and found dwarf Wing virus.  Although the hive was empty, I treated the empty comb for varroa.  The empty hive dropped about 300 mites.

My fear is the bees took most of the mites and virus with them.  I have sense treated all my hives for varroa.  Makes me sick that I let a mite infested swarm into the environment.  My fault, all my fault.  This was one of my strongest Italian honey making hives, two deeps, supers removed.

So, is your late in season swarm running away or running to?  You will not see the bees infected with dwarf Wing virus as those bees cannot fly.  Best of luck.  May you have a healthy swarm.
Blessings

[Fishing-Nut]

Thank you Arkansas, I will treat them with caution, but i was really thinking (hoping) it was because we are having a real good fall flow right now. Not just the usual (Golden rod) , the bees are bringing in tons of yellow, orange, white and some kind of brown pollen. They are seriously working like it's a spring flow. But on the other hand we got some pretty good wind from hurricane irma up this way. Tons of trees down. I had a few phone calls from people wanting me to get bees out of downed trees. Maybe this was an abscond from a tree that fell during the storm. Who knows......I appreciate the advice and I'll keep you guys updated.

[BeeMaster2]

Fish,
I agree, giving them drawn comb, saves them a lot of time and honey. They can just store what they bring in. If you were further north, it would be a waste of time. I would put them in a Nuc if they do not fill a box up.
Jim

[tycrnp]

Hey Jim,
In our neck of the woods, how late in the year do you make the decision to move them to a nuc? I have 1 hive that's weak that I may need to transfer. 

[BeeMaster2]

Hey Jim,
In our neck of the woods, how late in the year do you make the decision to move them to a nuc? I have 1 hive that's weak that I may need to transfer. 

You need to do it before the temps drop. Right about now is about right but you will have to wait until this storm has past us. You do not want to move them when it is cold and they need a few days to fix the comb and seal up the leaks.
Have everything ready before you start. Working in hives at this time of year can cause robbing if there are no flows going on, especially if you have a lot of hives.

Jim