I received a call earlier today from a gentleman about 20 miles down the road. He found a swarm of bees on his sidewalk in front of his house under a apple tree last night. He placed a box over them last night thinking they may freeze and then called me today. He removed the box and most of the bees are still there while others are buzing around. This doent sound right to me, what should I do?
Well, I guess from everything I've read here and in books, you could collect all the swarm possible and at least try combining with a weak hive.
Make certain they aren't yellow jackets before expending any time on them. If they are honeybees, combine would be best, this late in the year.
...JP
i have to admit, i have never picked up a swarm from the ground. i have had plenty of swarm calls that turned out to be yellowjackets! especially at this time of the year.
It's incredible that people can't tell a honey bee from a yellow jacket. I used to think that any 10 year old knew the difference.
Easiest catch ever. Just placed a 5 frame nuc box containing a couple of honey frames next to swarm , scooped a few into box and must have got the Pied Piper as within an hour and a half all in the hive. Voila!!.
All done . Wish they were all like that.
Well they are in fact Honeybees, the gentleman who called me originally told me he thought they were 'Italians' and after talking with him I was fairly confident he could tell the difference between a honeybees and a yellow jackets.
I called him back late in the afternoon actually hoping they had moved on as I wasn't sure what to do with them anyway. However when I called back he told me he thought the swarm was growing and that he had placed a box next to them and about 30 minutes later they had moved into the box and were in the top right corner.
So I told him I would be out in an hour or so knowing that it was cooling off quickly but the bees in my yard were still flying. I arrived just after sunset to find he was correct and I found a 2 +/- pound ball of honeybees in this box.
They do look like Italians to me but they are quite a bit smaller than the ones in my yard. I would imagine that would indicate that these bees were from a feral hive? I am going to leave them in the box I placed them for the next day or so with a feeder and then I will try to get and take a better look.