Swarm Catching

[Ben Framed]

I have been told by a man that catches a hundred or more swarmes a year and sells lots of them, he refreshes lemon grass oil every 7-10 days.

Now that's a busy man! Thanks Pause, catching that many swarms makes me wonder, "what is his strategy"?

Phillip

[Terri Yaki]

Swarm trap is seeing some light action this afternoon. I have a camera on it and they are triggering the motion activation. I'd say about six bees went in and I didn't see any come out.

[gww]

Very seldom do I see bees around a trap except in rare occasions where they seem to be getting water or some mineral out of the wood the trap is made of, if they are there they are looking for lodgings.   Doesn't mean they always end up picking mine.  If they are looking hard, most times you see some flying around the outside as if measuring the box.  This is usually true if you did not put honey or something in there.  I always get excited if I see bees around a trap as they are not interested anything in a normal trap except when looking for lodgings in my opinion.

[Terri Yaki]

And my swarm trap is somewhat active again today. They started at about 10:45 this morning and came in intermittently. At one point there were several at one time but for the most part, they were soloing it. It looks like they cruise around the hive for a minute or so, then go inside. At this point, there must be 12 to 15 of them in there, maybe a few more than that. I've only seen one or two come back out so what are they doing in there? One started to enter but backed out and left rather quickly, would they have guards set up in there already? Are they going to muster in there then go back in a crowd and bring the others back with them? And one came in at warp speed and went right in like she owned the place. I'm thinking that she might have been one that left and then came back. All of this is caught on my bee cam, I'm staying clear of them for now.

[gww]

I hardly ever stay clear.  I usually sit a chair up and watch them for hours.  I have had two come in at exactly 2 while watching them and it is kind of neat to be in the middle of them.  Some times they come in little waves and one time when I watched, the activity slowed down and then boom every body showed up.  Don't get me wrong, I have wasted time and they went somewhere else as well.  Had one show up at about nine once and my brother in law saw one come in about 5 but my bet is always on 2.   This being the second day, who knows but still a good sign.  I don't understand the bees not coming back out but if a swarm moved in, it would be a whole lot of coming and going.  They do go in and measure by walking the hive off but they have to leave to tell their friends.  Since I don't wait for pollen before moving, I can sometimes tell they are in for sure by being their close to dark and you will see bees coming in but not many leaving and that is usually enough for me.  Good luck.  I will say a camera is nice but not nearly as exciting as being in the middle of thousands of bees flying in. 

[Terri Yaki]

The alert on the camera keeps me apprised of the situation. Most every time it dings, it's an inbound bee and once in a while, it's my cat off to the side. If I see big activity, I'm heading out there. In the meantime, I get some videos of them mostly coming. I understand what you are saying and why I don't see them leaving is a mystery to me. I expected a lone scout or two followed by larger numbers. For a minute, the several at once looked promising but that was the apex of the activity.

[BeeMaster2]

Terri,
When they are checking out your trap, watch the way they act and how many are visiting. I have seen bees dancing on the entrance half an hour before they started moving in. The scouts all have to agree to go to your trap before they move. That means every scout has visited your hive. So you should see a whole lot of bees visiting your trap before they move in. They are also marking the entrance with their nazinoff glands, smells just like lemongrass oil.
Jim Altmiller

[Terri Yaki]

One of them did hang out on the porch for a bit and I was wondering if she was marking it. I'll see if I can find that video and study it.

[Terri Yaki]

Found it and got in on youtube. Is she marking the deck?

https://youtu.be/xiF6EJlNyzk

[Terri Yaki]

There was a bit of activity out there around 10:30 this morning and now nothing and I don't see any coming out, only going in. Could they be in there reworking the comb in the frames and cleaning up? So far, I've resisted the urge to look inside.

[The15thMember]

I don't have personal experience with swarm traps, but I doubt it.  I'm under the impression that scouts only inspect, they don't do any sort of prep work or anything.

[Terri Yaki]

I opened it up and looked inside and nobody's home. I don't know how much lemongrass oil to use but I spread a couple more drops around on the porch. Already, another bee buzzed past. I don't think she went in though.

[Michael Bush]

I never put more than four drops of lemongrass oil inside.  I put double that around the entrance on the outside.

[Terri Yaki]

I never put more than four drops of lemongrass oil inside.  I put double that around the entrance on the outside.

Thanks, I am relieved that I did not OD the joint. I was only using a drop or two outside and the cue tip with some on it in a plastic bag inside. I could detect a faint smell of lemon when I opened the lid and added popsicle sticks to the empty frames. After I added two more drops yesterday, I had two more visitors around 5:30. I thought it was kind of late for them to be there but they were. I wonder how far they can smell that stuff.

[Michael Bush]

A very long way depending on wind direction, speed and temperature.

[Caashenb]

You can tell it is swarm season when you are driving down the road and  your windshield is covered by bees. Drove right thru a swarm crossing the road. I have not heard of that before.

[Ben Framed]

Nor have I. It is here it appears.

[Michael Bush]

I have driven through swarms before.  I've also walked through them.  Not in a beeyard or, as far as I knew, near one, I've seen a swarm just fly through.   Completely took me by surprise.  I'm not so surprised when it happens in my yard.

[BeeMaster2]

Back in the eighties, I had a swarm fly over me and my family in California. My son was on my back so I dropped down low and we watched them. Pretty neat.
About five years ago I was called to remove a swarm. Had trouble finding it. Within minutes of finding it , they took off. I walked within the swarm for almost 2000?. If you ever get the chance, do it, it is really cool.
Jim Altmiller

[FatherMichael]

Having read these good posts, I reconfigured my two bait hives this morning.

I had them all full of drawn comb: a deep and medium - both full of frames from dead-outs - of which I had plenty after a disastrous last year.

Doped them up for swarms to move in but no takers so far.

This morning I took all the frames out of both hives.  Started over with a mixture of drawn, new cell rite, starter strips, and old frames.  Must have had frames and boxes of them strewn out everywhere!

Put an empty deep on the bottom to make the scouts happy in their quest for 40 liters.

From the medium over it I went two ways.

In one, I hung 2 deep drawn frames on the outsides.  Then there are medium-depth frames: 2 drawn in the middle, 2 starter strips outside of that, 2 cell rite blanks, and 2 old.

In the other, there are 2 deep drawn frames in the middle and the mix of medium-depth frames toward the outside.

Re-dosed with Lemongrass oil.

I plan to check frequently.

Changes made:

Got up this morning with one of those "duh" moments.

Why intrude on the deep hive body space with deep frames hanging down into it from the medium super above?

So, pulled the deep frames and put in all medium frames in the medium super, leaving the deep hive body empty.

If it catches a swarm you can just fill the deep with frames and they'll eventually move into it.

If I were a bee, I'd want to swarm right in there!