My hive swarmed today. They eneded up about 25 feet on a limb in a tree above the hive. I was able to duct tape a bucket to a piece of 1 1/4" pvc pipe. After positioning the bucket under the swarm, I bumped the limb a couple of times and was able to get the swarm to drop in the bucket. After bringing it down, I placed a lid on the bucket with it open on one end. I was able to tell right away that the queen was in there. The bees starting going into the bucket and all of them ended up in there.
It was actually pretty cool and exciting. Now I have to run in morning and get a new hive. I left them in the bucket with the lid ajart and placed them in a cardboard box, with big screened ventilation holes cut into it. I also placed a feeder in the cardboard box with them. I didn't know what else to do with them until I got the new hive.
Now I have doubled the size of my bee yard. haha. 2 colonies now.
Congratulations! That is some engineering for a first hive catch. When they are 25 feet up, I usually only catch them on camera.
...not to mention a LOT of duct tape :-D But that is what it is for! I love a good swarm capture.
I made one of those buckets this spring and so far it has worked very well, even though it is a bit "half-passed".
Now you've just got the bigger job of figureing out WHY they swarmed and how to stop it next time BEFORE you need the bucket!! (and if you figure that out then you need to tell me :-D)
Rick
I am not sure about the swarming. I just had an inspection done by the state apiary inspector 2 days before. He didn't mention seeing any problems in there.
Any suggestions as to why they swarmed?
Somebody mentioned to me that maybe they are honey bound and no room for the queen to lay eggs.
But then isn't swarming a natural way of producing more bees. Why not just let swarm?
Quote from: bizzybeehoney on July 31, 2008, 07:58:33 PM
But then isn't swarming a natural way of producing more bees. Why not just let swarm?
1. Because you won't always catch them when they swarm.
2. Because there are much more reliable ways of getting your hive to multiply.
And they normally leave when you need them the most to produce honey :-x Not to mention each bee taking a long a bellyfull of honey.
Better to split before they swarm, then you can feed them and the split has more time to build up and the hive has more time to build before the honeyflow.
2 hives that swarmed = maybe 30lbs of honey each.
2 hives that are from splits this spring = maybe 30lbs each.
2 hives that didn't swarm = 120 or so lbs each.