Hi all,

I do several of these each year. I do NOT start with a queen.

I start with 1 frame of eggs all the way to capped brood with some honey and pollen 
and enough clinging bees to keep the open brood fed and warm. More frames of brood will cause over crowding.
Keep a check on the number of bees in the trap hive. It may become over crowded quickly.
You may have to remove the first hive before the queen hatches.

Be sure to record dates so as to know when the queen cells should hatch and when the queen will go on mating flights. 

If she doesn't make it home from mating, add another frame like the first.

I do not know how often you can check for queen cells or bees getting back into the building, but this is very important.

If this is a very strong swarm, you may have to swap your trap hives more than 1 time during the trap out.

Good luck!!

Lionel 


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