A family friend has called me asking that I remove a bee swarm from a wardrobe, within a shed. The beehive is apparently huge, allegedly about three times the size of a basketball, with numerous long stripes of comb, though it couldn't have been there for longer than a week or two. They said if I can't remove it, they'll just burn them.
Problem is, I don't have access to any suitable supers currently. All I have is two empty nucs, one with frames and one without. It'd take me at least a week to obtain something more long-term for them.
I'm trying to work out the best way to manage this situation. I'm thinking I have two basic solutions:
1) use both nucs, place two frames in each and fill them up and place the entrances closely together. Since this swarm seems more established, I'm not sure what the chances of it having multiple queens are.
I have no idea how they'd respond to this. Would they all just go into the one, over-crowded nuc? Could I wind up getting two swarm colonies if I do it this way?
2) Acquire a large foam box from a local supermarket. They often seem to have lids, I could cut out an entrance and place them all in there. It'd turn into a massive problem, not being able to put any frames in it.
I'm not sure if the bees would eventually eat through the foam, either. I've done this for an emergency once in the past, but only left them in there for a day or two.
Thoughts?
EDIT: After some further thought, if these ideas suck as much as I believe they do, I could possibly acquire myself a manly super with frames to put them in.
