Hi All/Matthew You mention how you lost a newly hived swarm because it absconded. In africa our bees really like to leave for no reason when swarmish. To hold a swarm down the bees need a bit of capped brood surface - I sometimes add a frame if I can spare one, but find that if I leave the swarm in a hive box and feed it stacks of sugar for three days (be sure to give them water as well otherwise they crawl everywhere looking for it) in a very dark room. After this period they will have some mass of eggs going and will have fed the queen up until she is less likely to be able to fly. If you give them pollen (I usually just lay a squate of comb from a hive that I have removed recently on the base) it speeds up the egg laying proccess as well. Keep well Garth Garth Cambray Camdini Apiaries Grahamstown Apis mellifera capensis Eastern Cape Prov. South Africa Time = Honey After careful consideration, I have decided that if I am ever a V.I.P the I. may not stand for important. (rather influential, ignorant, idiotic, intelectual, illadvised etc)