In reply to my suggestion that a swarm should be given Apistan at day one
Bill Miller presents a good case for putting in the strips a week later.  I
think the choice depends on circumstances and what happens next.  I refer to
stray swarms, origin unknown, and they must always be suspect.  If the swarm
is from one's own apiary the only sensible course is to return it and no
other action is necessary.
If a stray then the action taken depends on what the beekeeper intends to do
with it.  Most small beekeepers will  use it to produce a surplus and for
this the supers must go on as soon as possible.  Every swarm goes steadily
downhill for the first six weeks.  No appreciable number of new bees will
hatch until four weeks have passed.  Add two weeks for them to reach
foraging age.  By this time much of the original swarm will have died from
wear and tear and old age.  Thus to take advantage of a swarm the supers
must go on at the start, when it will fill a shallow super in a week,
weather and flora permitting.
We have a strict rule here.  Supers on, strips out.  If  we wait a week
there will be larvae present and mites will be entering to breed.  The
strips will have to remain several weeks to meet them coming out.  In this
case the supers must stay off until it is too late to benefit.  If the
strips go in at day one they will kill most of the mites in a few days and
can then come out.  Putting in a floor insert will show whether infestation
exists and is slight or severe.  If one is unsure where to position the
strips put in four instead of two.  Once the supers go on further treatment
will be of the "harmless to honey" type.
I have rarely had a problem with swarms decamping, perhaps half a dozen in
sixty years.  Some take a swarm and hive it straightaway.  This is wrong.
One should capture it in a suitable box or skep, not too small, not too big
and leave it close to where it was captured, shaded from the sun, until the
evening.  Then move it to the apiary and hive it in the last hour of
daylight.  I always run them in at the entrance. When all are in I shut the
entrance to around one square inch.  Swarms do not take kindly to an
entrance fourteen inches wide.  Maybe their instinct tells them it is too
big to guard. Open it up a few days later. They have ample stores for a day
or two in their honey sacs and the young ones are already making wax.
Consider a boost feed two or three days later, especially if the weather
changes or the nectar dries up. Here we have the most unpredictable weather
in the world.  Blazing sun and ten to fifteen pounds of nectar one day,
heavy overcast or rain the next.
Sid P.
_________________________________________________________________
Sid Pullinger                    Email :  [log in to unmask]
36, Grange Rd                Compuserve:  [log in to unmask]
Alresford
Hants SO24 9HF
England