Spotted a Swarm

[Peanut]

I was futzing around my bee yard this morning. Water for the bees, water and feed for the chickens and rabbits. I was there for about an hour, bee activity was normal in all my hives.

It was about 11am and I came around the pole barn and could hear buzzing, really loud buzzing. It took me a couple of minutes to find the source. There was a wild swarm of bees about 40ft up in a sweetgum tree. There was no way for me to get to the swarm or the limb they were on.

I put out a new hive with new frames in it and a front entrance feeder. I also put a drop of lemon grass oil on top of a frame. An hour or so latter I noticed a lot of bees in my shop. Now there are always one or two but not a dozen at one time. So I threw together two more hives, one at each open entrance.

At dark this evening the swarm was still in place in the sweetgum tree. Is this normal, staying in place most of a day and into the night? Any suggestions, I've never dealt with a swarm before.

[splitrock]

I took one off a rural mailbox a few years ago that had been there a week, according to the mailman.

[KeyLargoBees]

When I start seeing scouts at a swarm trap its typically at least 48 hours before they move in. I have watched it happen on a tree in my backyard....4 swarms in the same trap literally out my back window this year.....watched 2 move in but the other two snuck in while I wasnt looking  .

Pattern has always been the same....a few scouts....grows to where you almost think you missed the swarm moving in there is so much scout activity then they mostly go back to their swarm at dark....same activity swing on day 2  and then on day 3 they move in...not saying thats a hard and fast rule but I have observed it 4 times on this trap since it was put up in February...

[GSF]

Swarms may be there minutes or a couple of days. If it's rained on them forget all the gentle talk you've heard about swarms. They'll blame you for the rain.

[mtnb]

Swarms may be there minutes or a couple of days. If it's rained on them forget all the gentle talk you've heard about swarms. They'll blame you for the rain.

Really? That's funny. I was just reading the other day how someone used water to spritz a swarm to make them think it's raining. It calms them down he said. lol I'm gonna believe you, GSF. lol

[GSF]

Here's my experience - I may have come to the wrong conclusion. I had a swarm about 3 foot off the ground. I shook most of them in a deep. A lot returned to the limb, then it rained. Before the rain I scooped some up with my hand and dumped them in the box. After the rain when I went to scoop again I immediately got stung 5 or 6 times on the fingers.

[cao]

In my limited experience in catching swarms(less than 10), I have noticed that the swarms are usually calm at the beginning.  If you get them in the box on the first try, everything is nice.  If for whatever reason you don't and have to try again, they progressively get more upset.

[GSF]

Good observation cao, everything's fine until that first shake.