The bees beat me to it

Today was the day I was going to populate Olea's hive with a shook swarm from the nuc.  I had planned to then place the brood from the nuc into #2 in order to give its population a boost.

As a sidebar, I have been concerned about #2.  It has been the weakest hive and is not expanding as quickly as I would want.  After treating with MAQ, I saw no activity at the entrance of #2 and worried that they may have absconded.   This has happened after treatment with MAQ but usually when it is hot or the bees are disturbed too soon.

No activity at #2, on the left

Back to the main story.  Yesterday the nuc swarmed! 

It clustered low down on the orange tree.

Starting to cluster

Cluster formed

I was just getting ready to leave for my clarinet lesson but I quickly got Olea's hive ready to receive bees.  I was disappointed when I opened the bag storing the old comb as much of it was moldy.

One can use moldy comb, but three of them were just too foul looking for my taste.  They are sitting outside now and perhaps I can use them later.
Early this morning I captured the swarm in a box and then poured the bees into Olea's hive.

The box ready to receive the swarm

Olea's hive ready to receive the swarm

Bees in a box

Bees in another box

A peek through the window

Now what to do with the nuc and #2.  The nuc now has a virgin queen so I just cannot put in the brood frames unless I find and remove the old queen in #2.  So I contacted Kathy Niven who suggested combining the hives by use of my double screen board (that I built some time ago) and after the bees are acclimated, finding and removing the old queen (who apparently is not doing well as manifested by the weakness of #2 colony).  I need an empty deep box to hold the nuc frames and Kathy is going to lend me one.  I will get it this morning and combine the hives.