First Swarm Capture !!

[alfred]

Hi Folks,
  I captured my first swarm yesterday. Wow what an experience!

  I have one hive that is not doing well and I wanted to expand to as many as five this year. So I put myself down on the list at the local beekeeping association to go out and collect swarms when folks call in to the local swarm hotline.

  I got my first call yesterday morning at about 7am. It couldn't have been better timing as I had just the night before finished building several new hive components. I am doing top entrances, all mediums, slatted screened bottomboards with pf120 plastic foundation-frames. All of which I had just constructed myself , except of course the pf-120's, thanks to much info and help from this forum,
thanks everyone...

  The bees were on a retaining wall in the foothills outside of town. The home owner was real cool and comfortable with the bees in fact it was his four year old who showed me the way to the swarm. they were just sitting there about seven feet up on the wall in a cluster. I got up on a step stool, borrowed from the homeowner (note to bring my own ladder next time), and began to brush them into a card board box with my handy bee brush. They got all stirred up but most of them dropped in with no problem.

  I don't have a beevac (yet...) so I was having a little trouble getting the last of them. There was a crack in the wall between two of the timbers that they seemed to like. So I coaxed them all out of there with the brush and I packed it with mud and grass so that they couldn't get back in.

  I had put a few drops of lemmongrass oil in the box before I began don't know if it helped but it didn't seem to hurt. Some of them were fanning near the top of the box and I saw more going in than out so I figure good.

  So waiting, waiting, waiting.... and I get impatient and I am remembering that Beth the swarm hot line coordinater had said specifically that if I could I should use a hive rather than a box to collect them into otherwise they are are unlikely to move in as easily. So I went to the truck and got my hive section and bottom board and top and took them down there. I am looking at them thinking that they are doing good but would they be doing better if I did it the way I was told.... What to do, What to do??

  So I quickly dumped them into the hive body and knocked them all out of the box. Well this of course got them going again but they were settling down pretty quick and I think that they did like the hive better. It had some empty frames in it, pf-120s coated with wax, so I suppose that it was more like home that the box was. I had also baited it with lemmon grass.

    Several of them still seemed to like the place on the wall that I had plugged so I brushed them away from there and spread a sheet over the area so that maybe they wouldn't come back to there. The bulk of them were happily in the hive body and fanning the come here message to the others.

   So there I am playing with this sheet and the homeowner comes over and tells me to check out what is happenning above me over the top of the wall. There was a second swarm descending like a tornado on top of us. This was a HUGE cloud of bees. I called Beth and she said If I had place to put them I should try to get them too. This group swirled around for a bit and then very quickly settled down, right into the hive body with the others!!?..

   I waited for about an hour for them to finnish settling but they never completly settled down and I had to go. I suppose that I could have left the hive till night and come back, but this was fairly far from home and I did'nt really want to make another trip. So I slid the top all the way closed and bungie corded it all up and carried them back to the truck. Wow was it heavy!!! By the time I got to the truck many of the left behinds had clustered on the side of the hive and my hand. I put it in the bed of the truck and closed the topper.

    When I left there were still quit a few bees buzzing around and I felt bad that they were now homeless and Queenless when I talked to Beth she assured me that they would eventually go back to rejoin their original colony.

   Wow what and experience. Especially when the second group moved in. They are now happily set up in my backyard with a feeder on top. My only concern now is weather or not they will take to the plastic frame/foundation I have given them. I can't wait to go out to do it again.

Alfred

[rayb]

[/I can't wait to go out to do it again quote]

Just one taste and you're hooked. I've had one and I want more.

Great story, let us know how they settle in.

Ray

[HAB]

[/I can't wait to go out to do it again quote]

Just one taste and you're hooked. I've had one and I want more.

Great story, let us know how they settle in.

Ray

Same here!  We've caught three swarms (our first since getting started 1st of May) and are Loving It! :) :) :)

[johnnybigfish]

Way to go Alfred!!
 I wish I could get some swarms here where I'm at. It just seems that there arent any to be gotten yet. I called entomology here at the base and they told me they havent had a single swarm call yet. They usually get about 30 calls from around the base every year. I even keep my bee catching stuff at work just in case. Oh yeh,...Entomology said that they would call me every time they get a swarm call to see if I can catch them before they have to kill them.
 The swarm catch is a GAS, isnt it? I got stung 13 times on my first catch!..They were falling out the bottom of a bee box that I didnt put a bottom on and they were stinging me on the ankles! It was GREAT!!! And it was in my own back yard! As a matter of fact it was the first swarm I had ever seen in my life :-D. Then about 3 weeks later I caught on in my front yard!.This was all within a month of me getting my first 2 packages!
 Again, congrats!!!

your friend,
john

[Gware]

A guy here in KY has caught 40 swarms this year. I have caught 2 and they were fun.This is my first year and I think it is great.

[stinger27]

     It is awsome isn't it Alfred.  I captured my first swarm this year, and I also help a fellow beekeeper get his swarm.  I loved it.  They were so gentle when they were swarming.  I wore short sleeves and no veil.  Don't think I'll try that on the swarms later in the year.

[KONASDAD]

Alfred- when you go up a ladder to get a swarm, I use a cardboard box like JP, from copy paper. i brush bees into box, put on lid and down ladder to home. Its lite and easy to manuever around safely.To stop them from leaving a new home, put a queen excluder on top of your bottom board, and beneath your first box w/ frames. Dump bees into and on top of excluder. leave excluder on for two or threee days. by then they have begun to build comb and are less likely to leave, take off excluder, just in case queen is virgin. by stopping them from absconding for 48hrs or so, you usually dont lose them afte that.

[alfred]

  Just an update. I took a quick look in on them yesterday.They are sucking down the sugar surup like mad and they have already filled up most of a medium with beutiful comb! I will add another medium today.

  This is way cool! I am so psyched to go out and capture another!

  Thanks for all of the tips and support!

Alfred

[dpence]

It is addictive I think.  Great work Alfred.

[blckoakbees]

I understand the excitment.  I caught my first swarm last weekend and I used a cardboard nuc box with queen lure in it.  It worked really well. The box was light enough I could get it close to the remaining bees after I brushed a bunch in, (holding a box of bees on a ladder is a whole new experience) and they just few in.