Guilfordbeekeepers.org

Had a tiny swarm show up in my back yard on a branch about 7' off the ground! I scrambled and got them on two frames in a nuc box with a made-up lid and bottom board.

Then, I had two more swarms show up at my roof-top hives this afternoon. I think I got one to go into a Red Oak box with a hole cut in the side and a squirt of Swarm Commander, and the other in a shoe box also with a squirt of Swarm Commander.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with them or who nearby is losing all their bees, but I'm guessing they are probably queenless absconds (?) and should all be combined into one hive once I have a chance to check them this weekend.

If you can get them to settle in and determine whether you have laying queens, things will become easier to figure out. If there are enough bees to make it worthwhile, combining queenless absconds seems to be the way to go. I have played with the last 2 absconds that showed up at the house. Both had laying queens, so I combined each into a hive that had gone queenless after full Formic Pro treatments. I'm curious to see how the queens do with a lot more help in the hive. If they both do well, they stay. If one is doing well and the other poorly, I will pinch and combine. Unless you want the challenge of seeing if you can over winter small absconds in a nuc set up, pinch and combine is the default option as I see it.