Picked up a small log with some bees and comb - advice needed

[OzBuzz]

Hey Everybody,

I've posted this in the General Beekeeping forum as well but figured that it might also be beneficial to have it amongst people that know, and work bees, in our conditions...I got a call the other day from a guy who was chopping up a tree - he found a small hive in the branch he was chopping up. He cut it down about three weeks ago and i went and picked it up last night... surprisingly the bees are still there. Does this mean the Queen will be there too? In any case it's a tiny hive, maybe a few hundred bees... I didnt want to cut the comb out so i have a medium box with drawn frames on the bottom, then i have sat a full depth super and put the log in that. I did have another medium with a few drawn frames just to support a zip lock bag of sugar syrup but i have since removed that and put the bag at the entrance of the hive - i poked too big a holes in the bag and it was flowing too much and there was a big pool of syrup on the bottom board of he hive coming. I tilted the hive too so that the syrup could run out of the entrance and not drown the bees. I'm hoping that the bees will move on to the drawn comb in the bottom medium box and leave the log (or atleast get sufficiently established in the medium frames for me to cut out the comb in the log and put it in to a frame). Is it worth my getting a queen? Does what i have setup sound like the best way? Any advice would be appreciated. I know it's an incredibly small hive - i mean the log fitted inside an 8 frame deep - and the chances of their survival are slim at best. They're amazing docile bees though - smaller than my carni X italians and with an orange abdomen and 4 - 5 dark bands (Italian?). One thing the guy mentioned when i was picking up the log is that he has noticed bees flying from the log and returning to it - also, i collected a second log which had a few bees in it. I shook these bees in to the hive body and cut the comb out - i noticed that there was some comb in there that did have some brood. It was capped - one of the cells was ripped a little and i could see a fully developed bee but it was still white - so if the branch has been down 2 - 3 weeks i'm guessing that the queen 'may' have laid the egg whilst it was down on the ground? I'm just not sure if i should try and track down a queen at the moment or whether i should wait

Any advice would be appreciated

[westmar]

hi 
   far chance queen with them.ma-by leave them in the log till spring.jam some rag on the bottom stand them up the right way. feed some sugar water in dish on the out side.

[OzBuzz]

Thanks Westmar,

For the time being i have just sat the log on top of a box full of medium drawn frames. Around the log i've put a full depth box and then a lid on... i'm feeding them a 1:1 sugar syrup. They are feeding on the syrup but they're also actively foraging bringing in a good load of pollen with them too...