About a month ago, I had a swarm move from one of my nucs to a brood box that was on the top of a stack of brood boxes to be cleaned. I was surprised that they picked that one. The box was a mess and I had intended to clean it and put a new bottom board under it.

I looked at it today and the bees were hanging under the bottom of the landing area as well as on the face and side. I would guess that there were about 4-6 lbs of bees. I am getting ready go to Texas for a family reunion and the bees will swarm before I get back. Now I will have to put them in another box with a good bottom board before I go. In case you haven’t experienced that yet, I will tell how I do it.

First get a box and, using the big staples, nail the box on both sides near the 4 corners by placing the staples on one side in opposing directions. That will help keep the bottom snug against the bottom of the brood box. Do the same on the opposite side.

Then take the frames out of the old box, one at a time, being careful to pull straight up. Don’t want to roll the bees and take a chance on killing the queen. Place each frame as you pull it, into the new box in the same position as it was originally. Moving the bees stresses them, so you want to keep the stress level down as much as possible.

Once you get all the frames moved, place a honey super with frames and foundation or drawn comb on top of the brood box. Normally, you place the brood box in the same place that you removed the old one from. In this case, I will have to move the hive to another location as I need to be able to get to the stack to clean it.

I will place the new hive in a place that I can leave them alone for a while. I will take one of the frames that has brood and put it in a nuc and place the nuc in the same place as the old hive and let the field bees come home to the only place they know to come back to. By using a frame of brood, the bees will accept the temporary box as home because the babies need to be fed. Using this same principal, you can hive a wild swarm much easier and they will accept the box much more readily.

At night when all the bees are back home, I will take the nuc and place it on the hive that I moved the main colony to. The next morning, I will take the frame of brood and put it with the other frames in the new box and shake the bees into the box on top of the frames. That way the majority of the bees will have to leave the parent hive to reorient themselves to the new location. When moving bees like this, it is better to move them at least 3 miles away from the old location. Otherwise, they will just fly back to the old location (stack of boxes in my case) and mill around looking for home. After about 3 weeks they will have forgotten the old location and will be oriented to the new home. If you want them in the original yard, you can bring them back at that time.

Some beekeepers, hobbyists mostly and some small sideliners, will change boxes on a regular basis each year, so they can repair, replace, and paint the boxes to reuse somewhere else. (Just to keep their equipment looking pretty.)