So my son calls me up. Seems this brand new house that is being built has a swarm on the side of it. I loaned the beevac to Barny yesterday. Don't really have all the equipment I needed. But I scraped a few things together. My son came and picked me up and took me to steal the Darango from my wife's work place because it had all the other bee stuff in it. We get out to the location. The bee are up at the top of the north outside wall. The house is pretty much all framed and has OBS board all over the outside. That's how new it is.
My audiance was amazed at how I bent down and just snatched a bee off the ground. I explained that it was a drone and wouldn't sting.
I borrow a step ladder and set a hive on top of it right under the bees. And what the heck. It's a swarm, right? So I go up top, no roof, and amazed everyone as I stuck my hand into the bunch of bees and brushed them down into the hive. Well about four or five bees didn't want to let go. I probably would have been fine but I decided to try and shake them off. A couple of them didn't like that, one got me on the little finger and another just above the wrist. So I pulled the stingers out and went for the gloves. veil, and bee brush. I brushed them down into the box. Let them settle a bit and brushed some more that wasn't quite in the box. I let them settle somemore and took the hive off the ladder and sat it on the ground. There were stragglers still going back to the wall. Every now and then I would see a bee doing a waggle dance and then there would be fewer bees on the wall. Then later a few more would be back up there. I wondered if they weren't the scouts returning. There would be more bee dancing and fewer bees.
I think some have already started foraging. I would see a bunch doing the orientation flight up and down the front of the hive. I saw a couple searching around a muddy place for water I guess. Perhaps this evening they will all have found the new home and settled in.