YES! The moment we have all waited for....OK...Well at least the moment I've waited for! :laugh:
SWARM #1 --- Understand, not swarm #1 of the year....BUT, FIRST SWARM EVER! :-D
Obviously, my efforts via "word of mouth" finally paid off....Got a call from a co-worker in the front office to tell me she had transferred a bee call to dispatch. I was on the phone with dispatch before they could drop the call and had them transfer the caller to me. I did a little better job with my questions and confirmed it was a swarm..."about 8 feet off the ground"! :)
Before I could get out the parking lot, I had two other co-workers call me to see if I had heard the call go out on the radio. LOL!
Anyway, got home, grabbed my stuff and headed that way...Of course, 8 feet turned out to be more like 16 feet! :shock:
Luckily from what I've learned reading this forum, I was fully expecting that and wasn't surprised in the least!
(http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/s664/jeffrobert41183/Swarm%20Number%201%20-%203-27-2013/9890A190-4890-4B29-AD35-9096D0E83A19-960-000000652C0DB023_zps53d3aa3c.jpg)
(http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/s664/jeffrobert41183/Swarm%20Number%201%20-%203-27-2013/42CC68E6-7CD5-4AEC-B266-294476061302-960-00000064F93EB71B_zpsa5ca748f.jpg)
Ran a few different approaches over in my mind real quick, upon reflection, not sure I took the best or easiest route, but I think it all worked out.
Since I was near the top of a 10 1/2 foot ladder, I decided to suit up out of an abundance of caution. The plan was to gentle snip the limb, carry it down the ladder and place it in the box. However, it really didn't work as I had envisioned it. I was kind of stretching to reach it and the cutting of the limb kind of snapped back, causing me to lose the vast majority of the cluster.
I placed what i had in the box and I placed the box atop the ladder in the hopes they would be drawn to it. Bees started clustering mostly on my ladder so I put the bee vac to the test and was very satisfied with how it performed. :)
After vacuuming up quite a few bees I notice that the bees were tending to hang out around the exhaust of the vacuum and the bees in the box were headed out. Figured the queen had to be in the vac. I took the box off the ladder, opened the bee vac and dumped them in....Put the lid on but left a decent size opening on one end.
In no time it was obvious that they were all now interested in entering the box.
Video clip! (http://s1311.photobucket.com/user/jeffrobert41183/media/Swarm%20Number%201%20-%203-27-2013/87A0E493-A6E7-4DB2-BC3C-880F5E3FAF01-960-00000062FF34C1E1_zpseed1f795.mp4.html)
After they all made it inside, I closed the lid, hung around and vacuumed up a few stragglers and headed home.
All in all, I think it went well.....Sorry for rambling on...But I'm I little on the fired up side of things. After all, you only get one first swarm! :-D
You have no idea how happy I am for ya Moots... Just awesome and thrilled to hear that the vac worked as intended... I know one Dad (aka Bailey) that will be proud too.... :-D
Way to go Moots :cheer:
I think I'll wait another year before I venture into that. LOL
the first time is always special :evil:
Quote from: PLAN-B on March 27, 2013, 11:13:09 PM
You have no idea how happy I am for ya Moots... Just awesome and thrilled to hear that the vac worked as intended... I know one Dad (aka Bailey) that will be proud too.... :-D
Hey B, I couldn't wait, I had to call him when I was on the way home to tell him about it...As well as pick his brain for advice on how to best handle the situation.
But hey, what are Dads for...Right! :)
Thanks again Bailey, followed your advice and got them in place...all went smooth!
Congratulations. It will be the first of many, I am sure.
Good going Moots, just the start of things to come.
Joe
great job moots. I know how you feel to get your first swarm,made me think back to my first. :piano: :piano: :piano:
You will aways remember your first. X:X :bee:
John
the lazy man approach is to throw a rope with a weight on it over the limb, set a box under the cluster then give the limb a hard tug and the bulk of the cluster should land in the box put the lid on and wait. when the bees that are left cluster up again lift the lid and give it another pull. close them up again the bees should be fanning by now. leave the lid on and pull again. you won't get every last bee but you'll get 95 percent of them.
He had me on the phone before he ever got home.
Good to see you get one.
It looks like a nice one too.
Now beware, swarms are comb building and bee raising machines. That 8 frame med will be drawn out in less than a month and they will swarm again if you let them get crowded.
Good work, making me proud.
Bailey
I remember my first swarm catch. I was on the phone with JP who was walking me through the whole process. I was so nervous and excited.
Still I am totally excited about each and every one I catch.
Way to go Moots!!! That looks like a "good'un"!!!!
It's interesting, I read about all the swarms people catch but except for my own swarms last year that I re-hived I have never seen a clustering "wild swarm". I drove through one one day that was still in the air (way before I got interested in keeping them), but that's the only swarm of any kind that I had seen until last spring. And I'm 55 years old. :?
Ed
Way to go moots.
Now get ready!! It always seems like when you catch the first one of the year they keep on coming. My first one turned in to my first 10 very quickly.
:pinkelephant: :devilbanana: :bee: X:X :hissyfit: :yippiechick:
Yea Moots.
An old pool pole and a 5 gallon bucket and some duct tape make that type of swarm easy and safer. Just tape the bucket to the pole and bounce the bucket under the swarm into the branch.
Jim
Way To Go.
Each swarm seemed to get easier for me, but they still give the same thrill.
Joel
Lets hear it for Moots!!!!!
3 cheers, HURRAH, HURRAH, HURRAH!!!!!!
Way to freaking go man. Happy for you. X:X X:X
Thanks everyone for the Congrats and advice. :)
It's nice to be able to share the experience with folks who can relate and appreciate the excitement of the experience.
10framer...I'm familiar with the method you describe, watched a video the other day where JP and Schawee utilized it...Not sure it was a text book example, the bees seemed to not be too interested in cooperating. :lau:
Had it been 25 feet instead of 16ish, I probably would have had to go that route.
Jim...You're right, this retrieval was probably tailor-made for a bucket/pole retrieval. However, while I've read about the method, I haven't added that tool to the tool box yet. :laugh: Maybe that needs to be my next project. Although I think I'm going to build another holding bucket for my bee-vac first, I can see where it would come in handy.
I really think it went fine, in hindsight, if I had it to do again, I think I would use the holding bucket from my bee vac in one hand and do a shake with the other....getting the lid on as soon as safely possible. Then while safely on the ground i could have transferred them to my box and vacuumed up the stragglers. Or, leaving them in the bucket while using a second bucket to vacuum up the stragglers would have also been a good option....assuming a second holding bucket is available.
WOW! It was really neat! Now I can't wait for the next one! :-D
X:X :bee: :cheer: :piano:
Congratulations! It's all gravy from here. Before you know it you'll be doing it with only a veil as protection.
Quote from: D Coates on March 28, 2013, 10:04:37 AM
Congratulations! It's all gravy from here. Before you know it you'll be doing it with only a veil as protection.
Thanks D,
They were very nice bees :)
I considered not even suiting up...but figured standing atop a 10 foot ladder, better safe than sorry! ;) I'm glad I did, I really wasn't expecting it to come apart like that when I cut the limb and I ended up with quite a few bees on me. Don't necessarily think they would have stung me, but it may have freaked me out just a little. :laugh:
HOORAY! Moots!
Congratulations! What great news! Sounds to me like you did it perfectly!
So, are you gonna call that hive "Madonna" ? :-D
love,
ziffa
moot I cant type capitals but YAHOOOOOO GOOD FO YOU BOY now you done got yo cherry broke forget you got a vac on swarms get you a bucket and pole and if they too hi for that let them fly. no bees worth getting hurt over
ps on the suiting up tell bailyi said fo him to go get you a bud bee suit and I will pay him for it when I see him in a coupla weeks as a first swarm present congrats boy
Quote from: bud1 on March 28, 2013, 10:40:36 AM
moot I cant type capitals but YAHOOOOOO GOOD FO YOU BOY now you done got yo cherry broke forget you got a vac on swarms get you a bucket and pole and if they too hi for that let them fly. no bees worth getting hurt over
ps on the suiting up tell bailyi said fo him to go get you a bud bee suit and I will pay him for it when I see him in a coupla weeks as a first swarm present congrats boy
LOL! I'm almost afraid to ask what's a "bud bee suit"....I know a bailey bee suit is a set of scrubs and a pair of crocs! :-D
Ha... Moots I am sure it doesn't cost much to catch them in your birthday suit..... :evil: I'm thinking a bud bee suit isn't much more than that.... Lol
Quote from: PLAN-B on March 28, 2013, 12:36:52 PM
Ha... Moots I am sure it doesn't cost much to catch them in your birthday suit..... :evil: I'm thinking a bud bee suit isn't much more than that.... Lol
B,
I'm afraid we're on the same page here. :lau:
Any word from your co-worker on the status of potential Swarm #2 for you? You're a better man than me, I would have been on that sucker last night. :-D....But then again, I do see your point, 0400 comes awfully early! :)
Hoping they're still there for you today after work.
Good Luck!
His wife said they are still there at this moment, but obviously that can change at any time... Didnt find out til after you told me about your swarm. Around 9:00 or 9:15 last night... Like you said 4:00 am comes quick and it would have been 45 minutes each way... Important to me, but not that important...lol :-D If it was meant to be then it will.....
Moots I was on the phone with Bailey when I went get my first swarm in Houma. About the size of a cabbage ball and is the biggest strongest hive I have. Put it in a top bar hive thinking that was the route I would take bee keeping but have since went to langs. I still have that hive in a top bar and they love the box and made two nucs from it so far and plan another in the coming week possibly. I have another top bar just like it and the hive I have in it is booming also and will probably use them for nucs splits from now on. Just think in a year from now you will bee asking yourself how many is too many and do I have the time. :-D
Blanc
Hummmm. Any one else seeing a pattern here?
Excitable kids calling home to say what they are looking at.
Good jobs guys
Bailey