I received a call from the campus operations desk. A swarm had been spotted on the north berm approximately 100 feet from my hive stands. The swarm was located on a bush directly east along the berm. The hive box where I installed the Wild17 swarm from Sunday May 12 had decided to leave the box. I was able to retrieve the swarm and find the queen. I caged the queen. We will replace her with the newest mated queen that we produce from the mating Nucs. I also took 2 mixed brood and nectar frames from WILDCA18B and gave them to the swarm.
In hindsight, I should have known this would happen. I took a newly swarmed set of bees, sequestered them for only 24 hours. Then I turned them loose in a box with nothing to anchor them in place. The hive box was newly built and the frames had zero drawn comb. The queen was not in a cage. So they just got up and left. The comb that was drawn over the 3 days was deep enough for eggs but no eggs had been laid. There were a few bits of nectar and pollen stored. Always give them some resources to work. Find and cage the queen if possible.
The bees were much more calm this time. No bee protection was needed and no smoke was used.
