Thanks for the encouragement everybody, it
is fun!
Neil, the challenge is to corral the queen, the remaining bees will follow. So, the brood comb is a strong lure for the queen. Once she marches onto the brood frame, it is time for a queen clip.
This swarm is too small to commit many resources Jen, too much robbing pressure here. My mentor from 1976 was very negative about feral swarms because of their unknown medical history, that stuck with me. I always segregate swarm bees unless they are mine.
Apis, I get little swarms like this until fall, I've read that some edumicated people consider this habit an AHB trait. For that reason, I do not let these queens live. I doubt it is a prime swarm, but these bees do attend to the queen -she looks svelte but you never know if she is mated or not. She was not nervous or running on the brood frame like a virgin. If there was a prime swarm, I didn't see it. None of my 15 hives have/had queen cells as of four days ago, checkerboarding is working for me.
Kebe, these tiny swarms have frequently landed on my mating NUCs or queen castles and try to take over -Four times that I have actually observed, in four years here in North Texas.
Perry, I keep various pole lengths on hand for occasions like this. I like this procedure for very high swarms when I can't shake the branch. I usually put a bed sheet on the ground, directly under the swarm and either shake the limb or put the brood frame up there...Queens usually go right for the brood comb if you give them a chance. Last week, I was bringing a brood frame down for a queen search and two golf ball sized puffs of bees were dislodged from their swarm 20 feet up. They fell to the ground, the queen was in one of them and that swarm is in a hive & going gangbusters now at another location.
Don't you just
love Spring time?
