We had a swarm move in to a swarm trap just shortly after removing a previous swarm.
At first, I thought it was just stragglers. But there seemed to be too much activity to just be stragglers.
I put on my bee jacket and gloves to peek inside. I was surprised to see the number of bees inside, and I am 80% sure this is a new swarm.
I lifted out one frame to see if I could find a queen. Bees were working the comb but no queen. The bees began to come stare me in the face and tell me to get lost.
I pulled a second frame, looking for a queen, and someone broke out the crate of bananas. More bees swarmed my face, started hitting my gloves and veil and became insistent that I leave now.
I got the message and put the frame back in. Since I was not wearing boots or my bee suit pants, I closed the hive and began walking away. 3Reds was right behind me. She is a little brighter than I am, so she kept her hands out of the hive and was wearing her full bee suit.
My plan is to suit up fully and go back in. If there is a queen in there, I'll kill her and replace her. If there is no queen, I thought I would introduce a frame of brood and add a new queen.
Assuming I find and kill a queen, how many days should I wait to introduce the new queen? I'm thinking of killing her on Sunday and installing the new queen in a cage on Wednesday. Is that too long? Should I kill the old queen on Monday, instead?
If the bees are not ready to accept the queen, I can probably keep her alive in my house for a day or two, but after that her chances for survival in the box start to drop.
Thursday would be the last possible day, anyway, since we will leave town Friday for the weekend to visit kids and grandkids.