2014 swarms

[davidawbrown]

I was called to this scene last week!!
After 2 hours of hard work I got them all safe!

[LaurieBee]

I was called to this scene last week!!
After 2 hours of hard work I got them all safe!

That is beautiful.

[BeeMaster2]

That is a good looking hive Laurie.
Jim

[LaurieBee]

I wish I could claim it but it belongs to  Davidawbrown.

[davidawbrown]

There doing well in there new home!
(Was a bit nerve racking getting them out of there though!)

Hands were shaking a little!

[BeeMaster2]

There doing well in there new home!
(Was a bit nerve racking getting them out of there though!)

Hands were shaking a little!

That is not a bad thing. We must keep in mind, if you do not handle them properly, they can kill us.
Not that we should fear them, so can your dog, and most of our farm animals. We just have to respect them.
Jim

[GSF]

Caught one yesterday after work. I'd say 4 or 5 pounds. They wouldn't fit in a 5 frame nuc so I used two 8f mediums. I figured they came from one of my hives. Dang sure was a lot of bees. I like to lost them. They were in for a while then started coming out and flying around. So I started misting them with water from a spray bottle. They started looking for a dry spot then.   ...a swarm in july..,

[richter1978]

Had one of mine swarm on Monday.  Lucky I was already about to work the bees anyway!  Landed about 25 feet up a cedar tree. Got out the tree climbing gear and was able to retrieve them.

[GSF]

Caught another one today. I saw it coming out of the box while I was picking corn in the garden. I've have another hive that I'm afraid I missed. I wanted to let some return to the wild but on my terms  ;)

I have a scratch retina (eyeball) as of 4:30 this morning. Dang it hurts!! Dr helped it for a couple of hours then the numbing med wore off. It's been hard getting around today and doing the things I wanted to. 

[tefer2]

Caught another one today. I saw it coming out of the box while I was picking corn in the garden. I've have another hive that I'm afraid I missed. I wanted to let some return to the wild but on my terms  ;)

I have a scratch retina (eyeball) as of 4:30 this morning. Dang it hurts!! Dr helped it for a couple of hours then the numbing med wore off. It's been hard getting around today and doing the things I wanted to. 

I learned to wear safety glasses after my last eyeball scratch. Climbing around in a tree!

[Diogenes]

Had another swarm take up residence in my empty "bait" hive. (Almost a shame since that oddball box is 9 3/8 and I can't stack it on anything) No idea how big yet. Had just finished applying MAQS to all the other hives and had gone back to apply a couple drops of lemongrass oil since I noticed a few scouts poking around. Since I took my time (45-60 minutes) cleaning-up and putting things away I missed seeing them arrive.

I guess it's hopguard for these ladies in a couple of days. No sealed brood and everyone treated.

The other hives are already kicking some of the drones out. Winter is coming.

8-)

[GSF]

Caught yet another one coming out of my hives.

[OldMech]

Had a few swarm calls this year..  All but one were gone by the time I got there..  Pulled in to one location and watched them disperse and vanish over the trees...   I believe we lost too many Feral hives last winter, they have plenty of ready made places to go this year.. but I did get lucky when doing an appraisal for a cut out.. the fellow I was talking to frowned, looking over my shoulder...   "What is that in that bush over there?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7_g-E7RoVs

   Pay attention you can see the queen come out on the surface of the cluster twice...    I was getting a little frustrated with vanishing swarms, so this little swarm eased the pressure that was building...

[Carol]

Just caught a swarm in my swarm catcher. I have been concerned about the "squirrel box" (now bee box) getting overcrowded and no way to increase size so I set up the swarm catcher. I think they moved in the same afternoon. My neighbor is going to take them on Monday...

[capt44]

Got a call this morning that a cloud of bees showed up and settled on a tree limb.
They were about 5 ft off the ground and I bumped the bees into my swarm bucket. (vented bucket)
I have them in a hive now getting accustomed to their new home.

[GSF]

Caught another one in my yard today. I think I've missed at least two in the last 10 days. Oh well, they'll be back in a year or two :-D

[davidawbrown]

Had a few swarm calls this year..  All but one were gone by the time I got there..  Pulled in to one location and watched them disperse and vanish over the trees...   I believe we lost too many Feral hives last winter, they have plenty of ready made places to go this year.. but I did get lucky when doing an appraisal for a cut out.. the fellow I was talking to frowned, looking over my shoulder...   "What is that in that bush over there?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7_g-E7RoVs

   Pay attention you can see the queen come out on the surface of the cluster twice...    I was getting a little frustrated with vanishing swarms, so this little swarm eased the pressure that was building...

Just watched the video,

Very nice!

Regards
Dave

[GSF]

Just caught a swarm hanging off the sides of one of my boxes. It was probably 2 double handfuls of bees. After swarm? I'll look for the queen later if they are still around. Took one inside the nose for the team, yea team :-x

[BeeMaster2]

On Wednesday I removed an open air hive that was just started. It was about 7' off the ground and was almost the size of a football with only one little piece of comb in the middle with brand new eggs only. I backed my pickup truck under the nest to make it easy to work. I vacuumed them up. I thought about shaking them into the box but there was so much Spanish moss in the mass of bees that I figured that not many of them would release. They are very gentle bees, no protection, did not even light the smoker, and no stings. I poured them into a nuc when I got home and saw the queen as she went down into the box. I gave them 2 drawn frames and I had an old shallow drawn frame that had a hole that the piece of wax, with eggs, fit perfectly. I just pushed it in place and put it in the hive. The nuc is a new one that has a STB and a SBB. When I pull honey next week I will have to give them at least 3 frames for them to make it through the winter. I will bee spreading honey frames around to the hives that are light.
Jim

[jayj200]

was trying to down size. Darn caught another swarm.