#1) Are you sure it is a swarm? Check your colony. Is there plenty of room? Are the bees filling the top? Do you have a queen excluder that they aren't going through? There can be many reasons for bees to hang out in front or under their entrance. I have had them do so when I didn't have enough super space, when I had put on comb supers, and when I had a queen excluder with foundation above it. For one reason or another they found it more convenient to drqw comb under a raised bottom board than to use what I had provided. #2) If it is a swarm, have they drawn comb? If not, set a hive on the ground next to the blocks with the entrance facing underneath, have filled with comb or foundation but with one frame of open brood. Brush the bees off toward the new hive entrance. Some will probably enter, find the brood, and drqw the rest of the bees in. If comb drawn, set new bottom board on the ground, set on an empty brood box, unstack original hive, place old bottom board on empty hive body. Bees can now fly up under old bottom board to enter. Restack old colony on a new bottom board on the ground on the other side of the blocks. Either combine swarm with another colony or provide with a box of comb beneath for them to move down into as the wild comb fills up. You can move back up onto blocks after a few days to make sure bees know their home and don't return down under. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + Raymond J. Lackey + + Beekeeper 10 years with 25 colonies on Long Island, NY+ + INTERNET: [log in to unmask] + + Mail: 1260 Walnut Avenue, Bohemia NY 11617 + + Home Phone: 516-567-1936 FAX: 516-262-8053 + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++