Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Swarms, Cut Outs, Trap Outs and Bee Trees => Topic started by: cpekarek on May 11, 2017, 07:17:10 pm
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I shared this on another site but figured I would post here also.
I had an interesting day. I work at a golf course and that's where my hives are located. As I was driving up to my office around noon, I saw a cloud of bees swirling around. I have never seen a swarm but I figured that was what I was seeing. I came upon them right before they picked a spot to rest. After about 10 minutes they started to settle into a dense 6' high bush right outside my office. It took another 15 minutes and they were in 3 loose clumps on the bush. I quickly grabbed a 5 frame deep box I had built for a future nuc, put in a drawn frame and a frame of open brood I took from another hive and filled it out with 3 frames of blank foundation. I cut the branches with bees off the shrub and shook them into the box and closed it up. There were still a few thousand bees swirling around the bush but I had to attend a meeting offsite so I left the box sitting on he ground near the bush. I came back 3 hours later and the bees seem to be working the box like any normal hive.
I feel like I was really lucky to be able to capture the swarm so easily. I had to go out of town for 3 days and didn't have time to move the box. Hopefully the bees will still be there when I return. I will need to open the hive I suspect the swarm came from and see what is the status.
I never knew it would be so easy to catch a swarm. :D
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Nice thanks for sharing keep us post! :)
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It's a great feeling. Hope you get many more.
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Nice catch. Some can be easy, many are not. ;D
Hopefully you can get them transferred quickly, swarms I have caught in nuc boxes tend to not like the small area and can sometimes head for greener pastures.