Mysterious Swarm

[Joseph Clemens]

For several days now I've been watching and fooling with a fist sized swarm in a peach tree adjacent to my main apiary. Today I knocked most of them onto a comb half full of honey, spotted their queen and almost got her into a cage before she flew off. I don't know if this swarm is from one of my own hives or coming in from somewhere else - I've seen both. They didn't stay on the comb long, but quickly reformed their cluster in the same spot. A few hours later I noticed they were no longer in that spot, but had moved to the upper back side of the same tree.

[HAB]

Keep trying, wish you luck. :)

[MrILoveTheAnts]

The new spot is probably where the queen landed. That is a terribly small swarm, I wonder what happened to the rest of them.

[Joseph Clemens]

Well, late this afternoon, they were still there, so I took my small screen-sided bee transfer box (I made it for bee sting therapy), then, using hand pruners I clipped the small branch tip they were clustered on and dropped it into the box, then shut the screen slide cover. I left the box in the shade near the peach tree and in a few minutes there was about 50-60 straggler bees clustered on the outside of the screen - indicating that the queen must be on the inside.

I'm thinking of making up a small Nuc of emerging brood and nurse bees, then combining this swarm with it, keeping the queen trapped with a circular Nuc entrance guard.

[Joseph Clemens]

So, this morning I checked the Nuc I had placed this swarm into. (Remember I placed one frame of emerging brood with enough nurse bees to cover the frame. I then fed the swarm bees until they were gorged with sugar syrup, then sprayed them with the same syrup until they were a little damp, making flying difficult. Last, I added them to the Nuc box with the emerging brood and nurse bees. There was a queen includer on this Nuc.) What I saw, when I checked on them, was a frame of brood continuing to emerge, lots of dead nurse bees, a swarm queen and a handful of workers. Looks like most of the swarm bees either left or where killed in the fighting. Not enough adult bees to be viable without additional intervention.