Hi,
Yes, I just captured a swarm (in a trap I set in my back yard) last Sunday. The trap was a poly hive I set up with some comb inside. Ha! It's just that easy.
I've been feeding them 1:1 sugar water, and man they are thirsty. They are all over the feeder as soon as the sun comes up. Been sucking down at least 8 cups of the mix every day. Today they went thu 12+!
I opened the hive today to take a look and all is good inside, working fast with a queen in place. Didn't expect to see her or I would have had some paint ready for marking, but she made an appearance anyway. No eggs, but a little honey some pollen and lots of wax.
I have experience interacting with bees. I have a full suit w/gloves and veil. I use the full deal if I'm going to dig into a hive and really have them flying, or mess with a colony I don't know. I don't typically wear gloves unless I think I might really make them mad. What I've done most of the time with my hives in the past is just wear a hat and sunglasses and use smoke and everythings been fine. The last hives I had (last year) were hit hard by SHB, one small hive abandoned ship one day while I was at work. The other was invaded by ants and somehow lost it's queen ..ended up w/laying workers and that whole mess. I harvested all the honey and nuked them when I realized the hole was too big to dig myself out of that year. Planned to solve the problems and have a whole new game planned next swarm season. And here we are.
Not feeding in hives to keep beetles at bay, checking daily for ants and hitting them w/ cinnamon when they do show up. Beetle traps are ready if they re-appear but I suspect if I keep everything clean and get a strong hive going they will kick out any beatles before things can get bad. (That's what I've seen them do in the wild.)
Am I missing anything?
--Jeff