How long before the swarm season starts where you live?
If it is close I would put up a swarm nuc traps and catch a small swarm. Then I would combine the two using news paper between them to separate them for a few days.
Free bees and a free queen. Check the new swarm when you get one for more then one queen. There are videos on this.
I am up north so it is at least 3 months away before the bees will start swarming.
Bob
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YAHOO!
I harvested 3 1//2 gallons of honey from one hIve that died out this spring. I am 78 YO and it shows and so decided to quit the bee keeping game.
So after scraping most of the capped honey, just put the hive back together and started asking my kids (56 and 54) if they wanted the equipment.
No takers so there it sits.
Yesterday a swarm moved into the hive! At first I figured they were just robbing the remnants, but today they are very active bringing in nectar and pollen.
Makes me smile
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The bees don’t want you to quit no matter how old you are Mike.
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Yes. I am back to two hives again.
Michael, the bees like the way you treat them. Its a Blessing from God thing. They would not let me quit either. I had only one hive left that died out a couple winters ago. I just left the box sitting there.I was ready to quit for good. Last spring a swarm moved in and was very active. That colony produced a swarm last Sunday. They settled in a (difficult) low hanging crook of a pine tree on my property. I tried to knock them out, lure them out, put an old hive box right under them. They were in that spot for FOUR Days! Finally, last night I put a feeder with some sugar syrup with a bit of “Honey-B-Healthy” in the box entrance. I figured nothing else had worked, what did I have to lose? Joy and I got home from the food pantry about 45 minutes ago, and the swarm had finally decided to move into the empty hive box. God is Good!
And yes, Bees can make you smile. 
Edit:
I need to make up some more sugar syrup, they finished it already!
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