Last night my wife's uncle gave me a call. He found a hive in one of the farm fields. Apparently a swarm landed in a bush. We went out and sure enough, there was a football sized swarm. It's already 10:30pm when we got out there. It was pretty easy collecting the swarm. I took 3 frames out of the hive box, slid the box under the swarm and 2 or 3 shakes later, most of the hive was in their new home. I am pretty sure I caught the queen. The straggler workers were doing everything they could to get inside the box after I sealed it up. They are pretty active now orienting in my bee yard.
This morning when I went into the bee yard to check on last night's catch, I heard a loud buzz. I thought to myself...man...those bees are loud (thinking they were the new hive). I looked over about 25 feet from the edge of my apiary and low and behold another swarm!!! This one was about the size of a football also. They were in a bush also so I used the same technique as last night and now I have captured two swarms in about 13 hours.
The first swarm I caught looks to be a feral swarm. They are tiny tiny bees. Chances are likely that the second swarm that I got this morning are a swarm one of my older hives. Hard to say though.
My wife got some pics and a bit of video from this morning's catch. I'll post them when I get a chance and if they came out good.
Congratulations bassman1977
on catching your swarms i cannot wait to see the pic and video
Johnny
I am not sure if this will work or not. I don't use Image Shack too often but here goes. This should link to the gallery with the pics. The majority of them are from the swarm I caught this morning. My wife took a couple shots of the hive from last night. They kinda clustered at the front entrance for a few minutes but then it started raining 30 minutes after the morning swarm was hived and they all went back inside the hive.
http://img33.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=1001495m.jpg
Never seen pink bees before, is that a new strain :-D
good job on getting the two swarms put up.
and thanks for the pics.
G3
QuoteNever seen pink bees before, is that a new strain grin
LOL...I thought they were grapes when my wife got them on my computer.