With all the driving around I’ve done because of this bee swarm in the house, I thought I might as well drop off a bait hive at an apiary I had to empty a couple of weeks back. The water company needed to do some work very close to the hives and the workers were understandably uncomfortable about doing so with the bees present.
I’d had the impression from the owners that the facility was unused (possibly a miscommunication there), so when I move the bees back I’ll have to site them further away. Meantime it looks as though they’ve finished the work they were doing, so leaving a bait hive on site shouldn’t cause too much consternation.