My 1st Swarm Catch! VIDEO!

[DonMcJr]

Caught my 1st Honey Bee Swarm Today! They were 25 feet in a pine, we taped a box to a long pole and I hit the branch with the box and they fell in the box. Then we put them in the Nuc Box. After 3 Tries we got the Queen in the Nuc half the Bees stayed with the Queen in the Nuc and Half went back home to the Original Hive.

Has anyone ever seen half the Bees return home? The hive is in a House between the upper and lower Stories.

It like the Queen got in the Nuc Box with ALOT of bees and the cluster on the Branch started disperseing and went back into swarm mode and swarmed the entrance of the hive at the house and went back inside.

I'm thinking they realized the Queen and ALOT of Bees were in the Nuc Box and said lets go back there's enough with the Queen.

The Nuc of Bees is in my Bee Yard and I have the Full 10 Frame hive ready to put them in 1st thing in the morning.

[blueblood]

Nice catch Don.  I saw it on your FB page earlier.  I haven't seen that before with them returning but I was just thinking about the stragglers I left behind this afternoon after the swarm catch I had.  I wonder if they return to the mother hive also.

[DonMcJr]

It was unreal! We basically filled the nuc box with bees full. 3 Times I banged them on the box at the end of the long pole and dumped them in. The 3rd time they clustered on the branch for about 5 minutes then they were buzzing EVERYWHERE and heading behind the house. When I ran back to see if they were swarming in another trees they were swarming back at the entrance of the house and went inside.

I don't think the Queen would go back home to the Mother Hive would she? Pretty sure she in my nuc and it's busting with bees.

When I put them in the hive tomorrow I'm gonna grab a frame of eggs from another one of my hives just incase we didn't get her but I think we did. 3 Dumps and they just swarmed back to the Pine branch...4th time they swarmed all around and left the branch like I said above...

[DonMcJr]

Just found this online... It only took them a half hour to return back to the Mother Hive after the queen was in the Nuc ( I hope...pretty darn sure but I still hope she is!)

" If the hived swarm is removed as soon as it is hived, there will likely be several hundred bees lost and will hang around the area for a day or so looking for the swarm.     If this happens, the lost bees will return to the hive they originally came from within a few days unless the queen (or a queen) was left behind.   If that happens the remaining bees will cluster again somewhere with the “left behind” queen.     These clusters are generally small."

 

[apisbees]

The bees will return to the original hive when they loose contact with the queen pheromone and the sent fanning of the bees that they use to tell the other bees where they are. The nuc box needs to be placed with in a few feet of where the swarm was to attract the bees to the bees and queens new location. If some thing happens to the queen or she can not fly because of a clipped wing and falls in the grass in front of the hive the swarm will return to the hive. If you wanted to keep the colony that the swarm came out of strong find and remove the queen from the swarm, the bees will return to the parent colony.

[DonMcJr]

I'm good as long as the Queen is in my Nuc... There's gotta be 4lbs of bees in the nuc! and another 4lbs at least went back to the parent hive!

We'll see here in a bit heading out to get all them bees into a 10 Frame Hive!

[DonMcJr]

Well the swarm is in their new home! So many bees I had to use 2 deeps bottom one is all drawn comb!

[DonMcJr]

Now I have a Question... If I installed this Swarm in it's Deep at 9am this morning when should I see them bringing in Pollen so I have a good Idea the Queen is there? All 5 of my other hives are bringing in Pollen...

[apisbees]

they will not need pollen till the eggs hatch on the 4th day and if comb needs to be built before the queen has a place to lay in the bees will have other priority than collecting pollen with no place to store it once it is collected. If drawn frames were provided to the swarm they will collect it a little sooner and store it. but they wont be really committed till they have brood to feed.

[DonMcJr]

I gave them drawn comb so 4 days I should see some pollen coming in...cool thanks

[apisbees]

It could be a little longer depending how long it takes the queen to start laying again. If they don't start by them there may be an issue with the queen. Maybe a cast swarm and the queen is still a virgin and need to mate so could take 12 days or more before brood is present that need feeding. I have seen where a queen will stop laying and although you can see her in the hive she never starts up laying again, you see it more in the spring but I have also seen it on 2 other occasions.

[DonMcJr]

UPDATE:

This Swarm has been in the new hive in my Yard for almost exactly 2 days now. Seen Pollen Coming in already and they are cleaning house bringing out Pine sticks that I didn't even see!

Also talked to an old timer today and he told me if the bees are walking out of the hive with their wings open so they look like a "k" and walking around a bit before they fly off then it's Queenless. If they walk out with wings closed and fly right off then they have a Queen.

Intersting enough I spilt a Nuc I got last week into 2 with Queen Cells in one and the Queen in the other. The one making their Queen right now has the "k" thing going on!