I had a call from a new beekeeper who said he had a swarm of bees in a bird house in his back yard. Being August, I thought that it would be a little swarm not worth fooling with. I told him that I would be over the next day to check them.

He called back and said they had moved to the Oak tree in his neighbor’s yard, about 20 feet up on a branch. I again told him that if they were still there the next day, we would get them. He didn’t call me the next day so I assumed it had either been a mating swarm or just a little after swarm that would not make it anyway.

Two days later, his sister called and wanted me to come and get another swarm out of the bird house. This time I went and found about 3 lbs. of bees hanging on the bird house. They told me the other swarm was nearly 2 times larger. Wow!! He has four hives set up in his back yard and evidently 2 hives swarmed at this late date. There were two supers on all his hives with one filled and the other partially filled on each one. I don’t know why they swarmed. There was plenty of room and at least one frame in each brood box that was not filled with brood or eggs.

We set up another brood box and pulled 2 frames of brood from one of the hives to put in the new box. After putting the swarm in the box and rehanging the bird house, I told him to put a feeder on the new hive so the bees could get started building comb. He will probably have to keep feeding through Winter until next Spring. I will go back over in another week or so to check the bees and see what progress they have made.

Just when you think you have the bees figured out, they do something off the wall. Well, until the next time, keep you veil close, your smoker lit, and you hive tool sharp.