I've been lurking and learning, now I'm gingerly coming out of the shadows. Yesterday, my daughter informed me one of my two hives had swarmed. It was just last weekend I removed the Apistan and added supers. The swarm was about 40 feet up in a pine tree. A 32 foot ladder, a shop vacuum and a couple of 12 foot sections (it was salvage therefore the odd lengths) brought maybe 2/3 of the bees into my plastic bucket recieving chamber. When I got all I could, I took the recieving bucket into the basement to cool the bees and sprinkled sugar water on them. Back outside, the remaining bees re-entered the hive from which they swarmed. This all happened around noon here in the Central Savannah River Area of South Carolina. We're across the river from Augusta Georgia where the Masters is currently capturning national attention. Anyway about 5:30 PM, I took the recieving bucket out to the empty deep super I had set up. I pulled one frame of honey and pollen out of the hive that hadn't swarmed and one frame of honey and pollen from the parent hive. I then pulled a hive of brood from the parent hive and upon closer examination found an empty queen cell with several other queen cells. I was reluctant to place it in the new hive body until I realized I had no idea if the swarming queen had survived the vacuum trip. I put it in. What did I do right? What did I do wrong? What I learned: CPVC pipe in 24 - 30 foot sections is heavy. Next time I'll borrow some aluminum tubing from anybody with a swimming pool. Though I had made provisions to control the amount of suction, my vacuum operator was a young lad who had never before seen a swarm. The vacuum was not regulated. I killed about 1/3 of the bees during the suction operation. I neede a piece of foam in the bucket to soften the fall. I also had to use one section of "corrogated" vacuum tubing. There was a significant bee kill in this section of tubing. The bees tended to clog the 2 inch pipe and only knocking against the branches would break them loose. When ever I thumped the pipe, bees would rain down. There were no stings, however. The new swarm seems stable today. Some movement of bees to and fro. My intention is not to disturb them for a few days. I am feeding them 1:1 sugar water but they are not taking it very fast today if at all. I need to start my spring treatment with Apistan in January next year. A question. When I was pulling frames from the parent hive, I noticed a couple of bees with deformed wings. My initial reaction was that based on the cycles, they probably were laid and hatched in the early portion of my 45 day Apistan treatment (if not before - I put the Apistan in the third weekend of Februaray) and therefore missed the protection. Should I go ahead and write off this honey flow and treat immediately with terramyacin (sp?)? Or should I let it rock on and treat with Apistan and terramyacin in August, anticipating lifting honey supers in July. Thanks. I know this was too long, but I am excited about the swarm capture. Gene Dixon [log in to unmask]