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Swarm trap observation
BeeMaster2:
Here is a video of a very large swarm moving into a large swarm trap. It was so strong that they were able to fill 9 empty frames with comb and brood and build another 12 inches of comb below that in 10 days.
https://youtu.be/JcW0geAUi0Y
I put the jar of lemon grass oil on top of this box to make sure they went in the large trap only. When this started there were 3 traps, one was on top of the pay phone that I removed and one was under my neighbors shed that turned out to also have a new swarm in it.
BeeMaster2:
Here is a video of Tom Seeley explaining the process.
https://www.cornell.edu/video/honeybee-decision-making
Nock:
That was a huge swarm Jim. Thanks for the link to the other video. Learned a lot in that. From what he says they don?t start looking until after they swarm. Found that interesting. I will have to get that book as well.
Ben Framed:
--- Quote from: Nock on April 28, 2021, 12:06:12 pm ---That was a huge swarm Jim. Thanks for the link to the other video. Learned a lot in that. From what he says they don?t start looking until after they swarm. Found that interesting. I will have to get that book as well.
--- End quote ---
They may have already been looking and have some locations in mind but; I always wondered about the (already have a new home picked out, before the swarm theory). If that is the case, why would they go to a nearby limb to hang out on? Why not go straight to the new location if there was a new location already picked out? But with bees, who knows lol.
I do know the following from experience. I have lost one swarm via the going to the new location situation. I had a nice swarm in a magnolia tree. I did not know it was there or how long it had been there. When I noticed it I realized it was out of reach from a 10 foot step ladder so I retrieved my bee vac with the 16 foot extension and came back just in time to see them take flight. I tried to follow them but once they had the location of their intent, it was useless. They were gone! I could not keep up! Over the fence and through the woods! :grin:
Jim when you watched the swarm come in, did you see the origin of their flight? In other words, did they come straight from one of your hives, or from a tree, or other etc?
Nock:
Well it wasn?t 10 minutes after I made my post earlier this morning my son calls me and said there is a swarm at the house. Bad thing was they weren?t going to my trap. They were trying to go in my carport. I didn?t think of it at the time but I had made the perfect swarm trap in my carport. I?ve had 4 deeps with frames stacked in there. All from dead outs over the winter. All packed with honey. I have been open feeding them back just to clean them out for the comb. That?s where they were headed. They were confused on the location since back in the carport. Why they were bunched up out on the front. When I got there I saw the big bunch on eve and a small group on my mule. Went straight to the small group and sure enough Queen was there. So I go to get a clip. By that time they started flying to mule. It was a big swarm. There was at least 6 frames worth of bees in those deeps plus what was hanging and still flying around. It was a amazing site being right in the middle of it. I was like Jim had bees all over me. Got them a box set up on top of a ladder next to the cluster on my mule. Saw the Queen one more time but didn?t get her. Went ahead and added another box cause they will fill one deep easy.
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