we'll be transferring them to a 19 frame layens hive. they could live happily in the swarm box for the year, but we want them to have roomy quarters. totally agree with your last statement. we're coddling non native honeybee strains that aren't resilient to their locale. i'm not even sure people are talking about that at all, but that's a great point. beekeeping with feral swarms is something i'm so thankful we've started to learn and practice as it seems to be the way forward into creating strong colonies!