First Swarm, and was it a big one!

c10250 · July 03, 2011, 11:58:27 AM

My brother went out on his deck for morning coffee and saw this swarm in his neighbor's tree. It wasn't from any of our hives. I think this would qualify as a large swarm. Thinking back on it, I wish we would have got a fish scale to weigh it. My guess is 10 lbs, maybe more, but I'm no expert. (By the way, I'm 6 feet tall).

Some of the narration isn't actually correct. These bees were VERY GENTLE and we could have done this without a suit. Having heard stories about how swarms can become aggressive, we didn't want to take any chances.

Finally, the swarm was housed in two deeps. The bottom deep already had frames in it when we shook the swarm into the empty top deep. It's all the leftover equipment we had. You can see a mix of everything from drone frames, to built out frames, to foundation. It's all we had. We'll be fixing up their new home shortly.

Enjoy.

Swarm!

alfred · July 03, 2011, 12:24:23 PM

Nice swarm! Great video!

sc-bee · July 03, 2011, 02:36:00 PM

Geeze, Wow, Shazam :shock: : ;)

What was the S word Sh-----swarm :-D

As you know by now they were gathering back on the limb because of the pheromone smell left behind. Happens quite frequently.

CeeGeeBee · July 03, 2011, 02:57:44 PM

That is a great video! Thanks for posting!

c10250 · July 03, 2011, 03:52:16 PM

Quote from: sc-bee on July 03, 2011, 02:36:00 PM
Geeze, Wow, Shazam :shock: : ;)

What was the S word Sh-----swarm :-D

As you know by now they were gathering back on the limb because of the pheromone smell left behind. Happens quite frequently.

As you can tell, the video probably could have used a beep or two.

bens · July 03, 2011, 09:00:06 PM

wow, cool video.

Larry Bees · July 03, 2011, 09:30:41 PM

That was a big swarm!

Great video! I enjoyed it!

Larry

Brian D. Bray · July 03, 2011, 10:12:31 PM

When a swarm is shaken like that it is normal for about 25-30% of the bees to return to the rest sight in the tree. Basically any bees that were not shaken into the hive. I usually do 2 shakes for the bees in the tree and then let them sort it out from there.

Another method of hiving a swarm like that is to use 3 boxes with only the outer 2-3 frames on each side left in each box. Then just set the limb containing the swarm inside the box (trim is necessary) and put the top on. Come back in a few hours and remove the limb. Usually the bees will have moved off the branch onto the combs although there may be a little festooning between limb and frames. Replace the frames and consolidate down to 2 boxes. It's a little gentler on the bees but more time consuming for the beekeeper. But gentle can make the difference between staying and taking flight.

c10250 · July 04, 2011, 09:39:08 AM

Thanks for the info Brian. I've also seen where you just lay the swarm down on the ground next to the hive, and they all file in. I saw it on a youtube video. It was surreal!

Ken