We got a call from a local dog walker that there was a swarm hanging
from a tree in the cemetery.  Apparently it came from a feral colony in
a hollow tree in the cemetery.  We picked up the swarm and combined it
with a small hive.  We had excellent results.

Last year we used the newspaper between the boxes to combine a swarm
with a hive.  Didn't work very well.  Lost a lot of bees.

This year, we collected the swarm in a cardboard box.  It was a very
small swarm, only about a pound of bees.  We found and removed the
queen.  Left the bees in the box for about 3 hours, spritzing them with
sugar water every now and again.  Just at sunset, we took the cardboard
box up to the beeyard and placed it in front of the weak hive.  Sprayed
sugar water on the hive entrance and again on the bees in the
cardboard.  Within 15 minutes, the bees from the cardboard were marching
in lines up the cement blocks to the hive entrance.  There was no
fighting.  We figured the swarm still had enough honey to be accepted by
the hive.  We had just placed Apistan the day before, so are hoping any
mites will be taken care of.

It worked this time!  Don't know about next time.

Judy in Kentucky