Geoff Kipps-Bolton wrote:
>
> I collected a large swarm from high up in a tree yesterday. It had been there some months and had built a very impressive number of combs. I sawed off the branch and trimmed off all the twigs then put the whole thing in an empty hive. It just fits in a brood body with one super. I suspended the branch inside to minimise the collapse although I don't know how effective it is since the whole thing is breaking away from the branch.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas how I can deal with it? I have put another brood box with some drawn combs on top in the hope that they might move up, but I'm not optimistic. I wondered about making a top bar hive, breaking up the wild combs
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> and wiring them onto bars.
>
> Any suggestions gratefully received.
>
> Geoff Kipps-Bolton



You can tie them into empty frames using a thin twine. The bees will
eventually attach the comb to the frames, chew the twine up and remove
it. Actually the method involves wrapping the twine around the frame
with the comb positioned in the middle. The twine just cradles the comb
until the bees can get it attached.

I can't remember what kind of twine is recommended - someone once
claimed to have used cotton which created a lot of lint when the bees
chewed it up.

AL