May 10th 2013, I had to change out the box due to the unexpected mass of bees in that tree:
Man-O-Man, were there a ton of bees in that nuc! Arrived early this morning and followed Iddee's advice on switching. I did switch the white nuc out for another. The white nuc was my prototype last year and is a bit tight for some of my older frames. The 24' quality Werner ladder was the ticket, much easier and safer this round. I carried the nuc down slowly. All the bees remained in cluster. I scooped through the cluster hive to tool scoop by hive tool scoop . I did not find the queen in that mess. I was started to check the frames but there were way too many bees. And, frankly, I the bees needed to be contained. They were boiling over like mad. Plus, I started to flip a frame around that just had new foundation in it, and of course, tons of bees, and the foundation started to fall out with the weight of the bees. I guess this is a good lesson for why keeps should be using at lest 8 frame if not 10 when doing these trap-outs. Unless, you are sure it is a smaller colony.
They are in my yard now. I really think they will be candidate for a split already. I am blown away at the quantity! The new nuc with eggs is up there ready to catch the next batch. There were considerable amounts of bees already covering the cone and nuc by the time I left.
[youtube:3ltxpp60][/youtube:3ltxpp60]
