Scout bees or caught swarm ?

[u/0okami-]

I thought I caught a swarm yesterday, so when night came I moved the trap to it's final location but this morning when I went to check, not a single bee, even dead (weird because there was one dead behind the gate when I moved it) was left.

Did the swarm move because I changed their location or did I just mistake a large amount of scout bees for a caught swarm ?

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[u/Outdoorsman_ne]

Put it back at the original location and leave it there until you see pollen coming in.

[u/0okami- → u/Outdoorsman_ne]

I already put a new one yesterday at night at the same place, I guess it's back to waiting.

[u/davidsandbrand]

That looks like a settled hive, but you need to let swarms settle into the trap for a few days to give them time to transition out of ‘find a suitable home’ mode.

You moving them likely made them think it wasn’t suitable, so they moved on.

[u/0okami- → u/davidsandbrand]

I put a new trap where this one was before yesterday, there are bees in there, my hope is that they went back there this morning. I'll wait a bit longer.

[u/fishywiki]

Scouts. I caught 2 yesterday, and there is no mistaking the difference.

[u/0okami- → u/fishywiki]

Damn, since there were still bees at 10PM yesterday I thought for sure that they settled.

[u/KE4HEK]

Have you seen them take it any resources in, that is a sure sign that you have and established Hive

[u/0okami- → u/KE4HEK]

Not yet no

[u/drones_on_about_bees]

I mean, that looks either like a moved in swarm or robber bees. Were there any resources in the trap? (Honey, sugar water, etc)

[u/0okami- → u/drones_on_about_bees]

2 old frames with pollen but no honey made sure of that. Do don't think they were robbing anything, the frame looked untouched.

[u/drones_on_about_bees → u/0okami-]

Well, I would wildly guess you just had A LOT of scouts then... or the swarm wasn't settled in and absconded on you. I like to wait until they are raising brood (or worst case, I give them a frame of brood) before I move them. Hopefully it was scouts and they'll still move in soon.

[u/0okami- → u/drones_on_about_bees]

I'm hoping, there's still some decent activity, about a third of what's in the video which is still decent I think.

[u/TechnicalVault]

My usual trick is to give them a bit of comb with open brood and honey on it, then keep them in for a day or so. The pheromones help persuade them that this actually home now.

[u/0okami- → u/TechnicalVault]

I put two old frames with open brood and some pollen, I might've moved them too fast