Swarm

Two of the barn hives swarmed in the afternoon yesterday.   I first saw a small swarm on an apple tree when I got home & started to get ready to collect it when it flew. I think it was a swarm from the hive in the swarm trap that was sitting in the barn, because it wasn't very large, and it looked like they may have even gone back into it as they were all around it. Shortly afterwards Theresa saw a swarm in a wild plum tree where they have landed before. This was considerably larger and because of the reduction of activity today in the Langstroth hive by the barn, it probably came from there. This hive was from a cut out I did on the barn wall last year right after they moved in..

 They collected up above the higher ladder first. I didn't get the queen and they left the box and reformed lower down to the right.

Dropped a few on the way down.

 I carried it down and shook them into the box. This time I got the queen inside and the rest followed.

I then moved the hive about a half mile away so that the workers wouldn't be tempted to drift back to the original hive. In a couple of weeks  I may bring it back. There were a lot of bees. When I lifted the inner cover to add several frames, it was pretty heavy. 

Evening fog burning off after the rain

The hive in the second story wall is still going strong having made it through another winter.

And the swarm trap by the north  pond still has bees. That's two winters in a row they have survived with no attention other than checking with the Flir in winter to see if the box is still hot. I'm leaving this one alone to cast swarms. 

View from the bottom.  The white spot is a bee. The boxes hold six deep frames.  I set out two more today, both with a frame of old brood comb that had a little honey in the corners, and five empty deep frames.