In a message dated 96-08-12 03:23:37 EDT, you write:
 
<< If you take a frame of brood from another hive and give it to the swarm it
 will hold them better. >>
 
    Good idea!   Better yet, three frames, if you have enough hive strength
to "harvest"
them. ......Perhaps one frame from each of three hives.....  They have to get
going fast, if they are to have *any* chance at winter survival.
 
    We caught an itty bitty swarm today, one of several recent ones.  I
wonder if the wild bees are swarming to escape the mites.  I expected a
virgin queen, but it was a nice looking mature queen.  Nice looking stock,
too.  I couldn't see any mites among them.  There are no kept bees in the
area where we got the swarm.
 
    I think we'll try to build them up into a decent nuc, then use them to
requeen a failing full colony, next month, if they do well.
 
[log in to unmask]    Dave Green,  PO Box 1200,  Hemingway,  SC
29554
 
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