Today i got a call from a restaurant about a bee swarm on there patio. Everything looked good, the swarm was two feet off the ground in a bush and looked to be very large. As I was getting ready to remove them they decided it was a good time to leave and flew across the parking lot over some buildings never to be seen again.
So here is my question did they leave because of something that i did or didn't do and what should i do next time to prevent them from leaving before i get them boxed up. Could the activity around them cause them to leave.
Who flew across the parking lot the people or the bees :-D Chances are you were showing up just as they decided to pick up and leave this is a scenario that u might encounter as a beek you cant and wont win them all. Usually if you have the chance when you first arrive you want to hurry over to the swarm and spray them with some sugar syrup 1to1 so they will calm down and there is a much better chance of them not flying off if their wings are wet and they are gourging on some sugar syrup. Chris
They had actually decided to leave at least 30 minutes before you got there. It had nothing to do with you (unless you bumped them off their perch.
The bees/swarm have to (1) come to a consensus as to where they are going, this had mostly been done by the time you got there, then (2) communicate to the group that it is time to leave - and this takes a while, then they have to (3) get everybody to warm up their body temps to 95 degrees (f) to be ready for flight - Based on your temps yesterday this also would take a number of minutes to do.
A great book on the topic is Thomas Seeley's "Honeybee Democracy". All about how the bees/swarm search out a new home, come to an agreement as to where they are going, and how a relatively small group of bees leads them to new digs. What a great read.
I've watched swarms land in a tree and be gone in less than 15 minutes. I've also had them land in a tree, get rained on (actually drenched) and then stick around on same tree for as long as 41 hours before I finally collected them.
Agreed; When capturing a swarm, spray lightly w/ some sugar water asap or you may wind up watching them leave.
All you need is a box to tmporarily house them and some sugar water to keep them from absonding too soon (and if you're so inclined, a ladder). Don't need to suit up or even use a veil. swarms are very gentle, you can literally put your ungloved hand right into a swarm (gently) and not recieve a single sting.
thomas
ill have to try the 1:1 sugar water next time i had a box ready to go they just had other plans, on a good note i found an established hive on the roof of the restaurant and will be cutting that out in a week and they made me free lunch :-D
Cut outs can be amazingly good fun. Have someone standing by with a camera and be sure to let us all know how it turns out.
(even just plain water sprayed on is usually enough to slow up a swarm)
thomas
If a swarm of bees has already located a suitable sight for a new home they will often make several short rest stops before continuing on. Kind of like taking a head count to see if everybody's still there. They will then continue on their way until they arrive at their home of choice.
In such cases they will often abscond even if they were successfully hived unless the digs you provide suit them better. I've had them start to build comb and still decide to move along.
Swarms that land and stay put for a day or 2 are resting while searching for a new home. These are much more likely to be hived and retained successfully. Sometimes they don't find a suitable new home, that's when you find a swarm with drawn combs in the branches of a tree or under the eaves of a house.
Sometimes timing just isn't on the side of the beekeeper. My last 3 swarm calls were of the transit type, gone by the time I got there.