Over the last 4 days, I have boxed 3 swarms and brought home 2 of them from one hive that I have in a lady’s garden in her back yard. She has some small dogs so she has fenced the garden to keep them out. I removed 3 frames of brood from some hives and placed one in each of the 3 swarm boxes to take with me. Bee seem to accept a box if it has some babies in it. Since I didn’t have any wax comb, I just used framed foundation and the one frame of brood.

One of the swarms was in a bush across the fence in a neighbor’s yard. The second was on the wire fence surrounding the garden. And the last one in an apple tree in the opposite corner of the garden. The first two were easy and quick to box. On one, I just opened the box directly under the limb of the bush and shook the bees into the box, put the top on and let the bees call the rest to the new home. The second, I just placed the frame with the brood next to the swarm and they immediately transferred to the comb and I put the frame in the box. I then used an empty frame on the inside of the fence for a back stop  and knocked the bees off the fence onto the doorstep of the hive and they started to walk right in, calling the rest as they went.

The last one in the tree was the rough one. I couldn’t get the queen off the limb. It was a trunk limb and I used a pole bucket to try to dislodge the ball. I had bumped the limb about 2o times and got only a handful at a time. Half the bees were knocked into the air and onto the ground. The bees in the bucket were dumped into the receiving brood box and in front of the doorway. The rest just flew back into the tree. I had put a frame of brood (open and capped) in the brood box with the hopes that the bees would decide to stay and cover the brood and call the rest down. However, the bees had other plans.

If I could have gotten the queen, then I think that all would have been fine. But as it was, the bees decided that they wanted to stay with the queen and only a pound or two stayed in the box. I left the bees thinking I would go back that night to pick up a box of bees, but it got cold that night and I decided to wait till the next warm day.

When I got back, 2 days later, the bees were not in the tree and I looked into the box and the brood was dead and nobody at home. I think that if I had someway to place a kleenex of Fletcher’s Bee Quick in the tree, then I might have gotten them to go into the box. Since I did not have that option, I think the  in the tree called the ones in the box back to the tree and then they all left together. Unless — the queen did not swarm with the main cloud and the bees decided to go back to the parent hive that was in the garden where the bee tree was. If that was the case, then I still have all my bees.

I am thinking of getting a pole and a pair of spring actuated needle nose pliers. By  taping them to the pole and making a pulley of some sort with a small diameter rope, I will have just the thing I need to reach up and place a kleenex, napkin, or rag in the tree above the bees to help encourage them to leave the swarm ball area. What do you think? Will it work?

The other  swarms are happily in my back yard working to establish a home and get things in order. I don’t expect to make any honey this year from them. I just hope they can store enough honey for the winter pantry.

I will get my camera ready and take some pictures the next time so you can see the beauty of the swarm balls. They really do look neat.

In the meantime, get your swarm equipment together and when you get ready to go on a swarm call, you just load up all in that pile. It is easier to have all your equipment in one place and not have to worry about leaving something behind.