Really good pictures. :-D
Thanks Mshel. :-D
These next one's aren't as nice, but I wanted to share my first swarm capture of the year. Unsure where they came from but they were just down in the wetlands from all my colonies. The weather has been so crappy, delaying splits... still,
could have been from one of my own. I'll know better this next weekend when I break into them and do splits and super up.
This was a perfect swarm to catch. Good size (~4#?) and about 9' up on a smaller tree suspended between two branches.
The ground was really mushy (wetlands with record rains, after all), but not bad. I was able to situate an empty box directly underneath. First test was a shake of the smaller limb, which brought down 1/3 of the swarm. Landed right on target. So a kick to the main limb brought down the rest.
I grabbed two frames from another hive (capped & uncapped brood, etc.,) and, within 30 minutes or so they were all snug. No stragglers above even. I'd say a 99% capture (a couple of dozen landed in the wet and didn't survive).
So, despite the weather.. I guess it really
is Spring!