oh darn
into your swarm traps? do you think you can catch them when they land, or do you have an empty out to tempt them?
they have left my hive and are swarming in an oak tree that is about 10 feet away the swarm trap is farth away
Catch'em up and install in a hive body w/ queen excluder on bottom if you see queen. Congratulations on your new hive and first split :lol:!
Oh no it is not congrats...they are high up in an oak tree, they did not go to the swarm trap...I think they are leaving me :'( There is no way I can get them into another hive ...it is just to high up...BUT is did get to experience the swarm, and it was magnificent! Ugh..all that work...and poof,they leave...
Any pics?
They could still move into a swarm trap or empty hive body.
maybe not. they may yet find your swarm trap. if it were me, i'd get some empty supers out there with some lemon grass oil in them and some drawn comb (if you have it) and see if you can entice them into something. they'll be looking for a new home and if you give them all the options that you can manage, you might get lucky. spread stuff around and keep your fingers crossed.
ok will do...on my way
I pulled some drawn comb out of the freezer and placed some empties in a spare hive body that I had cleaned up a couple of days ago...I sprinkled the frames with lemon grass oil and lure and place it on an extra SBB I had...put it in the shade near the tree...now I am slave to nature...
MY HUSBAND HAS MY DIGITAL ON HIS TRIP!!! AND MY DAUGHTER JUST LEFT WITH HER CAMERA!!! grrr I will try the cell phone camera!
Gee,Sounds like your getting more frustrated than an Amish electrician!!
Even if you don't catch the swarm,the remaining bees should kick it into overdrive.
Oh wow, how exciting to be able to see such a magnificient sight!! I know you are not happy about it, but now that it happened nothing can be done except to try to lure them back to you as everyone here is saying. And you have to accept this.
The challenges continue!!!! Good Luck
Annette
It was amazing! I am SO SO grateful to have witnessed it! WOW, the sound was incredibly loud!! Now I am sitting on the back deck with a direct view of the bees in the oak tree...I wonder what the lil buggers will do now??
Yup I did panic a bit, I suppose like an Amish Electrician...LOL...
Please keep up us updated! :)
If you can't get them then consider it your gift back to nature.
[If you can't get them then consider it your gift back to nature.]
Kind of like Dallas looks at himself as 'a gift' to beekeeping! :roll:
You were in gifted classes in school, right Dallas?
--- He knows I'm JOKING with him ! --- I Hope ? ----
A gift back to nature...I like that, they'll do what they'll do...it is pretty awesome just watching them in that tree...
check your PM
well????????
what happened??
The swarm cluster has not budged from the oak tree...bees are just beginning to leave the cluster to forage I guess.
I have to leave the airport in a bit, so I can't really check anything at the moment. I have the 2 traps sitting about 10-12 feet from the cluster at about the same height (my back deck )...
Have to leave it up to the universe now...
Hugs
OK, I will keep checking your post. This is way to exciting.
Annette
they are probably sending out scouts to look for a new home.
I remember our bees swarming when I was a kid. It was incredible and the sound was something else...
The cluster has...vanished. Got home just now, bees are gone...I think I will go walk the property to see if they have remained somewhere here...hope they haven't gone to the neighbor's hahaha
Got to experience a swarm last year and man was it AWESOME!!! It was like a bee tornado is all the words that I can think of to explain it. Were in the south here so the big ol' tale of what to do (and ALOT of the beekeepers do it) is to get a pan and a wooden spoon and bang on it. They say it keeps the bees from flying off and makes them get lower to the ground. They story is they think it is a thunderstorm so they don't fly off. Hey, I made my wife do it while I wnet flying down the road to get a hive. Came back and seen my wife and two kids standing at the bush in the side yard jumping up and down. Hated I had to leave but seen enough to fall in love. Sorry yours got away but from the sound of it you got to see the best part....mother nature. The thing that made it so amazing to me was the fact that I knew no matter what I did I couldn't stop it! Helplessness yet powerful... :shock:
Golly they returned, or some other bees did! Whoa, now trying to get them will be a challenge!
HURRY, HURRY..!!
The suspense is KILLING us here!!
The heck with letting mother nature have them!
Put up a FIGHT, Sharon!!
Knock them into a box!!..YOU can DO it!!
your friend,
john
Easier said than done...the first time they were too high, this time they are so darn low and a midget oak tree, on a fat trunk, I smacked the darn thing, couldn't get bees to fall at all...tried scraping them off with cardboard, got some clumps into the hive body, looked somewhat promising...just went out and they are back on the tree, I have no experience whatsoever...sad, because I am sure any one of you experienced beeks would have had them hived and happy in no time... :-\
They'll follow the queen.
If you didn't get them all off the trunk, then likely the queen was still on the trunk, so back the girls troop to her.
If you haven't got a bee brush, get a clean (unused) paint brush (house size - 3-4 inch), a dust brush, even a soft broom and sweep them off. If you're using a heavier/more solid brush than a bee brush, make sure you press it against the trunk and sweep towards the cluster of bees so you roll them all off at once, rather than pushing the brush into the cluster and squishing bees under the brush. There'll be bees in the air, but just make sure you don't leave any bees on the trunk and you can then be pretty sure you'll have the queen.
Don't worry about trying to see the queen - it's a nice bonus if you do, but I never have in a swarm. ONce you get her in the box you'll notice in a few minutes those bees outside the box will start trooping in towards her.
you need to plant some of the trees i keep here on my farm. Nice limber limbs makes for easy removal. :-D
(http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/2784/dsc00436bk6.th.jpg) (http://img514.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00436bk6.jpg)
Sounds like a plan...if they are still there in the morning I will give it a try...OR should I wait til afternoon???
Swarms are unpredictable. They could up and leave as soon as they get warm enough to fly.
Jerry's right - a swarm there now is no guarantee of a swarm there in an hour, and absolutely no guarantee of them being there tomorrow. Get into em first chance you get.
Is it night where you are now? If it's dark I'd get out and get them at first light tomorrow morning - very first light.
yours sounds like one that a friend of mine had on a wooden fence post. at the time her husband was keeping bees, so he caught them. they were all over the post and low to the ground. he got them goopy with syrup and used his hand to kind of peel them off into a dust pan. he just dumped the pan in the hive and peeled some more. i have no idea how that worked out with the queen and stuff. i just remember he did it from the bottom up. don't know if there was a reason for that either except that they were clumped on the top and down the sides.
after this, go buy a cheap camera for the bees!!!!! :-)
Ok first thing in the am if they are there, dust pan, and i will buy a cheap camera! I estimate there must be 3# of bees...and I am not sure they are from my hive, I am looking in my hive tomorrow to see what is going on!
Most swarms leave the hive about mid morning and leave for the wild blue yonder about mid afternoon. If they are sill there the next day, they are probably stuck with no where to go and the odds of them still being there actually increase, as they didn't have a destination in mind when they started. But they still may leave any second. Or they may be stuck there forever.
Come on what happend with the bee's :?
Hey Irwin...
I think I have another post somewhere about the swarm, I was so freaked about it. A total of 3 swarms came to our land, I was successful in obtaining 2 with the help of many fine folks here. The swarm Ikept lost their queen, so I did a combine with a strong colony ( the only colony I had ) they made a great new queen, nicest bees ever, very strong stock, YAY!
Good for you :-D