Caught my frist 2 swarms today

[manfre]

I missed the window for preventing my hives from swarming, but I tried checker boarding and even made a split since one of the hives made about 15 queen cells. No point letting all those queens go to waste. Both swarms were about 100' directly across from my 2.5 hives. I'm thinking that they both flew out of the same hive. Didn't notice the second one until I was starting to put away the ladder and everything else I used for getting the first one. I lucked out in that today was a telecommute day. Otherwise, I never would have had the chance to catch the swarms.

For a while I thought I had caught a third swarm in a trap hive I put on top of my shed because there was a lot of bee activity at the entrance, but that seems to be scouts investigating the swarm lure that I opened and sprinkled in the hive. For those who don't know, you're not supposed to do that. I didn't notice the folded instruction paper in the bag until after I did that to the first one.

I'm really glad I had already bought/assembled enough equipment for the 2 packages that will arrive May 1. The plan for the year was to go from 2 hives up to 4-5. I didn't think I would have 7. I don't have enough time to order parts and have it arrive in time to install the packages. Now I can justify buying a router + router table to build the needed equipment for the packages.  :)

I have a more detailed write up (with pictures) about the first swarm and the second swarm.

[Highlandsfreedom]

Very cool congrats !!! Isnt it funny how this hobby EXPLODES out of controle some times? :chop:

[manfre]

Isnt it funny how this hobby EXPLODES out of controle some times? :chop:

That's an understatement. I caught another swarm today and I'm out of spare hives. I built a KTBH today and I'm in the process of building the top bars. I hope my hives don't toss out anymore swarms until I'm done cutting.

Is this an unusually strong build up year for bees? I know the cold weather at the beginning of this year resulted in lots of plants blooming later so there is a lot more for the bees to gather all at once instead of being spread out for several weeks.