Caught my first swarm of 2019.

[JackM]

I would take all the bees and shake them out in front of their door and leave...

My thoughts exactly

[BeeMaster2]

I thought about that but would be wasting a perfectly good hive. 😞
Judy and I are going to move these bees into a full size hive this morning. They have been bearding every day.
Jim

[jtcmedic]

I was at work yesterday and left back if my truck open and pulled a nuc out and had scout bees around it  so I left it in a spot and baited it so will see what happens fingers crossed

[Kathyp]

I'm not sure I would answer.  I'd just go get my bees and call it good.  Lesson learned.  Those types of people are usually not worth combat.  They would surely try to get back at you either in court or in person.

I have run up against a few of them.  Usually, it's a crying woman wondering why I am not enough of a sister to do her a favor.  You can guess my unsaid response   

[CoolBees]

Kathy - I see things the same. I learned a long time ago ... Don't wrestle with the Pigs, you'll just get dirty and they'll Love you for it"

Jim - I'm glad it worked out for you. You handled it very well!

Alan

[Ben Framed]

I was at work yesterday and left back if my truck open and pulled a nuc out and had scout bees around it  so I left it in a spot and baited it so will see what happens fingers crossed

Wishing you good catching! I plan to put out a few myself. This will be my first opportunity with the proper equipment to give it a try. Has to be fun walking up to a box full of new bees!  How many swarm traps are you planing on using?

[jtcmedic]

I was at work yesterday and left back if my truck open and pulled a nuc out and had scout bees around it  so I left it in a spot and baited it so will see what happens fingers crossed

Wishing you good catching! I plan to put out a few myself. This will be my first opportunity with the proper equipment to give it a try. Has to be fun walking up to a box full of new bees!  How many swarm traps are you planing on using?

I did 3 last year got 0. But got 10 from calls 5 stayed will see what happens

[BeeMaster2]

I was at work yesterday and left back if my truck open and pulled a nuc out and had scout bees around it  so I left it in a spot and baited it so will see what happens fingers crossed

Wishing you good catching! I plan to put out a few myself. This will be my first opportunity with the proper equipment to give it a try. Has to be fun walking up to a box full of new bees!  How many swarm traps are you planing on using?

They can bee really exciting, especially when a large swarm is moving in and you get to see the whole thing happen. Even more exciting is when they build 2 boxes full of wax in 10 days.
I will probably have a dozen or so traps.
Jim

[jtcmedic]

You have swarms moving in on your porch or was it your barn. Don?t even have to put them out

[BeeMaster2]

You have swarms moving in on your porch or was it your barn. Don?t even have to put them out

Before we moved to the farm, I would set the trap using the stack of empty supers just outside my workshop door. I caught a lot of very large swarms in those supers.
Jim

[BeeMaster2]

We inspected the swarm trap today. No where near as many bees as I was expecting. There was only 3 frames of bees. We could not find the queen nor were there any eggs. That is really surprising considering I had a queen excluder on the entrance. She may have found another way out and was on her mating flight. That also does not make sense. This should be a primary swarm and she should be mated.
Darn bees just don?t read the rule books.
I will re-inspect them in a couple of days. If there is still no sign of a queen we will probably add a frame of  brood.
Jim

[Ben Framed]

We inspected the swarm trap today. No where near as many bees as I was expecting. There was only 3 frames of bees. We could not find the queen nor were there any eggs. That is really surprising considering I had a queen excluder on the entrance. She may have found another way out and was on her mating flight. That also does not make sense. This should be a primary swarm and she should be mated.
Darn bees just don?t read the rule books.
I will re-inspect them in a couple of days. If there is still no sign of a queen we will probably add a frame of  brood.
Jim

Jim a question, queen or not, a frame of capped brood would really boost them being there is only three frames of bees? And maybe a frame with freshly laid eggs for the purpose of queen cells? Is this right?

[BeeMaster2]

Ben,
I will either add a frame or add these bees to another hive here at the farm. I have already removed 5 frames of brood from my strongest hive of the hives here to build up 2 other hives.
Jim

[Ben Framed]

Ben,
I will either add a frame or add these bees to another hive here at the farm. I have already removed 5 frames of brood from my strongest hive of the hives here to build up 2 other hives.
Jim

Under reasonable circumstances, that would have been right, (adding the capped brood and frame with new eggs), in your situation? Your bees along with yourself, have been busy!  Beautiful day here today.in North Mississippi but, Sunday night dips back to 20F and for at least 3 days. I'm concerned about the situation being my bees have really been busy also and this is a critical time of year when bees have been hard at it and the weather dips this cold for a few days, they need much protein along with nectar in order to feed brood.  If they are unable to forage, during this time, and are lacking in food, I have been told they will resort to cannibalism of the brood, greatly reversing the progress which has been made.  I've done what I can to help them be prepared. It must be nice there in Florida!!

[BeeMaster2]

Tuesday and Wednesday we are supposed to have lows of 35 and 32. That does not seem to bother the bees. I had 2 weak hives (2 frames of bees) that made it through January and still were building up with Lowe?s as low as 32. I really hope we do not get a waxed frost. My grass in my pastures is just starting to grow. I really do not want it to be set back and have to start over again.
Jim

[Ben Framed]

I moved this comment and started a new topic. Deep Freeze Coming.

[BeeMaster2]

I just picked up my second swarm. It was 20 feet up on a couple of thin branches.
Here is a picture of them going in the swarm box.

Jim

[Ben Framed]

I just picked up my second swarm. It was 20 feet up on a couple of thin branches.
Here is a picture of them going in the swarm box.

Jim

Looks like a good one too!  Congratulations!   Jim I have never caught a swarm. Last spring I went to fire houses, police stations, 911 center  ETC. But never got a swarm call. However, I did get cut out calls and was happy to get them!

[van from Arkansas]

Jim, I am glad for you, two swarms already by first week of March, my envy.  My bees mostly clustered, yes, still clustered, high 43F today.  Hopefully by Saturday, normal temps return and soon, very soon my bees will be buzzing bringing in pollen and nectar: 2019 unusual cold, it happens now and then.

[jtcmedic]

I just picked up my second swarm. It was 20 feet up on a couple of thin branches.
Here is a picture of them going in the swarm box.

Jim

Congrats