Olea's hive swarms! Apiary expands!

Admiring the swarm and the roses

Yesterday, while I was in the yard getting ready to feed the roses, Olea's hive swarmed.  The bees came flying out making a buzzing cloud in the yard.  As before, we watched to see where they would settle.  As I stood in the cloud, bees would land all over me.  This time, they flew into Paul's yard, and I went over there where I watched them buzz around.  They landed on all the bushes, finally clustering on an iron fairy decoration.  Note the clump on the ground.  I used the bee brush and a dust pan to get them into the box.

The cluster on the fairy

The fairy without her bees

Some had become caught in a spider web in our yard, but don't fret, Maidi saved them.

I called a couple of beekeepers to see if they wanted to capture the swarm, leaving a message with the first and speaking with the second, James.  (The same James who got the last swarm.)  He suggested I keep it myself since he hates to give away his bees, the more the better, etc.  When I told him I had nowhere to put them, he proposed putting them in the top bar hive.  I could divide the box in half with the back board and drill a door into what is now the back.  As I was hesitant to do that, he next offered me a 5-frame medium nuc.  He lives on the west side of Santa Cruz and getting there then would be impossible with the traffic.  He told me he would leave it on his front porch and I could pick it up last night or this morning.

I went into Paul's yard with a box that had once contained Bump wine.  I had punched many holes in it.  I shook the bees into the box and after they had settled down a bit, taped the box shut and brought it into our yard.  Laura and I weighed it on the kitchen scale- about 4 pounds!  Now I had a box of bees.

 Then I went to look through the observation window of Olea's hive.  It was obvious that a lot of bees had left.  The two endmost combs were bare of bees and there were clearly fewer just crawling around.  I also noticed a dozen or so drones crawling around on the rocks.  Maybe they had been forbidden to travel with the swarm- girls only.

I drove to the west side this morning and James was true to his word, leaving the nuc on his porch.  Unfortunately, it had only a bottom board, no inner cover or lid.  So I built them today.

First, let me say it's a good thing I don't try to do carpentry for a living.  I did get them built, though, with only a couple of incorrect measurements and re-cuts.  Fortunately, I had cut too long rather than too short.  I even used the router to make a groove in the frame to fit the inner board.
The weather was overcast with even a few splatters of rain.  An internet search assured me that I could safely (for the bees) hive in this weather.  I placed two frames in the nuc and dumped the bees in.  I brushed a few bees from the box into the hive as well, in order to be sure that the queen was in the nuc.

Right after hiving

45 minutes after hiving

 I left the box by the hive and in about half-an-hour all the bee s had left the box.  Over the next hour, they all crawled into the nuc.

When they were all in, I put the entrance feeder on.  I figure they'll need all the sugar they can get to build comb and store enough honey to get through the winter.  Of course, they'll have the eucalyptus to help, come December.

My apiary now

I don't know what to do with these bees.  If one of my other hives doesn't survive this year, I can use these as replacements.  Otherwise I may have to have a fourth hive (four is the maximum county regulations allow) or sell it or give it away.  Do any of you want to start beekeeping?