# How long to leave them in swarm box



## Jethro21 (Nov 21, 2017)

I’ve read what appears to be the common advice which is a week but I know nothing is written in stone.

I caught a good size swarm last Friday 3/23 in a 5 frame box up in my Palm Verde tree. They’ve been going strong since then. Tomorrow will be 4 days but the rub is I’m leaving town in 2 days for a week and a half. I want to be sure this swarm is anchored but don’t want them to start to feel crowded. So, do I move them tomorrow or wait till I get back?

Thanks


----------



## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

I move my swarms as fast as I find them. I do usually wait till after dark. I have some of my traps in pretty rough terain. One time, I did not get to one till it had some comb built and moving the trap at that time caused all my comb to collapse.
I have not caught that many swarms in traps, Maybe 5. None have left doing it this way though. Your milage may vary.
Good luck
gww


----------



## Scott Gough (Dec 10, 2015)

It depends upon what is in your trap. If you have frames that are the full depth you could leave them alone and just let them build out that box. 

The general advice is to move them once you see pollen coming in. That means they are raising brood and less likely to leave. Just because you move them before pollen is coming in does not mean that they will leave it just means that there is a greater chance. 

If your trap is like what I use the bottom part of the trap does not have frames and is open. If that is the case you will have a trap full of comb by the time you get back. So the answer would depend upon how you feel about working with fresh comb that is not in a frame. In this case I would go ahead and move them and take the chance that they will leave because dealing with fresh comb below the frames is not something I like to do.


----------



## Jethro21 (Nov 21, 2017)

The box has 1 frame that’s is drawn, 1 that is about half drawn and 3 frames with foundation. Watching the bees today they are very active and bringing in pollen.


----------



## Farmercal (May 19, 2015)

We just moved our swarm into a deep last night (won't do that at night again). They were drawing out about four frames but I already had some comb in there in the first place. We couldn't get the girls to get off the edges of the deep to seal it up for the night without out killing a few. The were pretty mad at us, but we got them into the box. They seemed fine this morning.


----------



## Jethro21 (Nov 21, 2017)

Thanks for the input, I moved them out of the tree last night after dark, into a deep today. Had several hundred foragers above me who had gone to where the hive had been yesterday, 4 frames covered with bees too to bottom both sides, 1 frame half covered both sides, and the inside of the box was still covered with bees.

Several good looking drones, bees old and young, overall a nice looking hive, zero stings. I’m glad I moved them today, seeing how full they were I don’t know that they would have hung out until I got back from my trip in 10 days. Looking forward to a nice productive hive.


----------



## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

Thanks for giving a report of what you did. Closure is alwasy nice. To me it sounds like a pretty good swarm. Most of mine are dinks.
Good luck
gww


----------

