Fraid nerves of a rookies first swarm catch

[BeeMaster2]

Speed is a good indicator. a swarm moves at walking pace, a queen flies at her top speed.
A swarm flies slow because the scout bees that know where the new site is fly faster and over the swarm and then fly back below the swarm and loop to the back to be able to fly over it again. The bees are looking up for direction information.
Jim

[Jedda]

 Its the weekend so I decided to release the swarm bees last night as I was concerned that I might accidentally kill them through neglect with family distractions. I kept an eye on them for an hour this morning while packing the car for a trip out of town and they were calmly flying around the yard but not going anywhere, except for one bee that had pollen on her legs but kept coming back out the entrance after around 15 seconds inside. I assumed she couldn't find anywhere to put the pollen but finally she went in and didn't reappear again, but I didn't see any other bees foraging after that. The drum hive was strangely quiet with very few bees coming and going. Might have just slept in as it was pretty cool this morning, I'll find out tomorrow as I didn't get back home again till well after sunset.

sawdstmakr; that's some great information, I appreciate it. As you can imagine there's quite a bit going on with the bees at the moment that I'm trying to understand. I've got to say I had a bit of a chuckle to myself after the swarm flew off at speed with the thought of surprise anyone under it would have got as the bees charged noisily past overhead. The last I saw of them was rather comical with the tail end bees flying in crazy spirals trying to keep up.

[jayj200]

So Jedda are you going to do a  cut out?

best training in the world right in your own back yard.

take pics and vids

I love pics and vids
jay

[BeeMaster2]

Jedda,
If you do a cutout, in your apiary, do not do it during a dearth. Do it when you have a flow on. If you are not sure, do a test. Place some of your honey, not commercial, in your apiary. If the bees pretty much ignore it it will be OK.
Jim

[Jedda]

Had another large swarm today. I don't know how there are any bees left in the feral hive. The captured swarm is acting strangely today, they have been marching along the beam the hives are sitting on and then marching back to their box. I suspect the queen is out there with them but I cant get a good look because they are acting defensive and buzzing my head whenever I go near them. I put on the veil at one stage but still got driven away by the number of bees buzzing around my head.

I cant do a cut out at the moment as its school holidays and there a too many people and kids about.

[Jedda]

 Its the end of the day now, and the swarm is still on the bush. The captured swarm started acting like the bush swarm with bees doing waggle dances on the outside of the box, so I was half expecting them to disappear today. I had a look at them this afternoon and the captured swarm was still covering the box. While I was watching I saw a buzz runner run through the lot of them and then run straight into their box (have watched Tom Seeley's videos on swarm behaviour and watched them again today) . Half the bees at least then came to life and went into the box and the remaining slowly made their way towards the entrance. Im wondering did they seriously decide to just move into the box? The bees all became fairly docile in the early afternoon and I was able to observe them all without any hassles and I spent quite a while watching the swarm in the bush. But late in the afternoon when it started cooling down they once again began showing their impatient side with me by flying around when I approached.

[jayj200]

You are very brave!

and strong we can not forget strong

[Jedda]

 I got quite the demonstration this morning, I went out to check on the swarm in the bush and they were still tightly packed together and not really moving. Half an hour later I saw scout bees all dancing the same dance, it was the same one they were doing yesterday afternoon but with the sun now in the east, the direction had changed to account for it. I kept checking on them every 10 minutes or so till I saw they were all starting to move around a bit, then spotted the buzz runner charging through them all, so I waited a minute till the first couple of bees alighted, stepped back a few paces to give them some room and watched them explode into flight. I spent hours trying to spot the queen in this swarm and never did, I don't think I have the knack for it yet as I have a sneaking suspicion I probably did lay eyes on her but didn't recognise her. I tried to watch the swarm fly off down the road but they became impossible to spot after 10 seconds. The scouts were indicating a spot with a 7 second long dance, so if that equates to kilometres they are going to be outside of town.

The swarm bees were behaving exactly how they are supposed to this morning, they were gentle and had no interest in me and it was a joy to stand inside the swarm as they oriented themselves before they left, it really lifted my spirits about having bees in the yard. I was thinking about trying to catch this swarm but I just don't have the room in my yard. I am a stay at home dad and looking after 2 little ones doesn't leave much time for building hive parts or capturing swarms.

Oh and thanks for the tip about the dearth sawdstmakr

jayj200; that's what my 4 year old son tells me all the time so it must be true :-P

My captured swarm I cant figure out, they are out sitting on the box again doing nothing. No bees coming and going, no bees moving around. I hope all is well with them as they are my backup hive in case the drum hive cut out goes wrong and the bees abscond or fail for what ever reason.

[Jedda]

The captured swarm finally revealed their intentions with bee dances on the hive so I sprayed them with water to drive most of them into the box and have blocked the entrance with screen again. I have them in a nuc sized box at the moment so maybe I'll have to try putting them in a full depth 10 frame box. They were only a small swarm so fit easily in the nuc box.

[jayj200]

ait till they grow in numbers

[Jedda]

Oh man I need to rename this thread to "how a man who thought he know what he was doing was duped by bugs". Its our first hot day of the season so I was keeping an eye on the captured swarm to make sure they didn't get over heated or stressed. I made up some thin wedges and I placed them under the lid to allow better air flow, then with a larger gap decided to have a peak at the bees and only saw a few. Curiosity got to me so I put on a veil and lifted the lid and I found..... nothing, they were all gone except for the bees sitting on the outside still behaving a bit like a swarm complete with those wiggle dance bees. I spotted comb on one frame so pulled it up to inspect and discovered it was a funny looking little peanut in the shape of a queen cell, but with nothing in it oh-ohh.

I eventually pushed the nuc up against the drum hive and half the bees marched straight into the old hive (maybe a hundred bees) without resistance, the other half stubbornly refuse to give up on the swarming idea and are still awaiting the official decision to leave.

I think what I saw yesterday was the apparently unmated queen running around the hive stand trying to figure out where she was with a bunch of bees chasing her around. I'm guessing at some stage she has made a bolt into the drum hive with some of her legion and then one of the queens has bailed from the hive with a swarm, probably the mated one :roll: So I happily watched a swarm in my yard leave today as I thought I had no room or use for them and now I am back to square one with my original drum hive only now with an unmated queen at the helm. No wonder they were being nice to me in the end, they were probably having a giggle to each other at the fact I had managed to loose all the swarms :-D

Its been a steep learning curve. Bees: 4, Rookie swarm catcher: 0