If you want to box the mass, make sure the box is well ventilated- otherwise the bees will be dead within a few minutes of sealing them in a plastic carryall.   Give them at least 2 6x6 inch hardware cloth windows to breath and ventilate.  Bees produce a suprising amount of heat!
I made a swarm catching box out of an old hive body.  Cut a slice off one sidefor a removable lid.  Refastened it on using snap clasps from the hardware store, and then covered both open sides.  (Lid and body side) with 1/8 inch hardware cloth.  Lid fits tightly to the main box to prevent escapees.  Now I carry it around in my car during swarm season, and I'm ready to go!
I made this handy device after I had a rather <Interesting> experience capturing a swarm.   I caught the swarm with no problem- dropped them, on a branch into a large cardboard box.  They seemed perfectly content to stay in the box, and I only had a short drive home, so I put the closed box into the back of my car, turned the air conditioning up to high, and started home.
Then I hit a construction detour.  Instead of a 15 minute drive home, I was facing at <least> a half hour, maybe an hour.
After about 20 minutes, the bees started coming out of the box, and clustering on the back window of my car.  They were perfectly peaceful, and not bothering me in the slightest, but you should have seen the faces of the folks about me in traffic- they couldn't believe I was sitting in traffic, with a back window full of bees, and I wasn't even opening a window.  (To be honest, I was afraid to let any of the bees out in a residential area.) Some folks even seemed to think I was somehow <unaware> that I had 5 pounds of beed clinging to the rear window of my Saturn. LOL!  All I could do was signal that I was "OK", smile, and keep on driving.   All the time, my car was rather warm, despite having the AC on high.  (And yes, the air conditioning works! )  The bees, tank god, were content to cling to the rear window of the car- I never got a single sting.  This just proves to me how gentle swarming bees really are.
Well, after a very "interesting" drive home, I  pulled the car into my back yard, opened all the windows wide, and united what was left of the swarm with the hive in my back yard- what a mess!   The bees had overheated in the cardboard box, spit honey all over the inside of the box, and all over the back of my car.  I can't blame them for vacating the box- they were suffocating!  I spent hours cleaning spit up honey off the windows and the uphulstery.
I was left with a big clean up job, I lost a good portion of that nice swarm, and felt <really> foolish!   (This is the first time I have shared this embarrasing tale- blush!)  That's why I made up my swarm box - I was determined to be ready if I ever had to transport a swarm again!

Ellen, in Michigan
  "Peter W. Plumley" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: To get the queen, the brood and many of the workers, I have considered
using a putty knife and starting in the early evening, trying to separate
the comb from the attic walls and placing the whole 'ball of wax,'
undeformed, in a large plastic storage bin with tight cover and then
quickly carrying it through the house and off to my apiary 10 miles
away.