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. 

Easiest swarm yet!

Sometimes it pays to be lazy! I didn't get around to setting this swarm trap out and the bees didn't wait for me, & just moved in yesterday.

(Yes PP. That's a practice bomb behing the trap)

Just took a few minutes to move the frame of comb & shake the rest of the bees off the top bars & into the new hive. 99% are inside now. Not a real big swarm, maybe a small football's worth, but they have plenty of time to grow. It was a cool day & they were previously all getting ready to build comb, so not much outside action.. I gave them a frame of honey, a 1/2 a pollen patty, & mostly drawn comb. Forage isn't that great right now, but should improve soon with the blackberry season being early..

Guard bees! :-)

One drawn frame against one side  & 5 top bars. They seem to like that arraignment.

The trap reset in another bay.

I have a swarm trap full of bees!!! Viewed with the FLIR One

This is a 6 frame swarm trap which I left alone with a swarm in it to see if it would over winter. It was nearing fall & I didn't want them to have to rebuild comb, so I left them alone as an experiment. It was time to change the camera cards in a couple of game cams & I thought I would justify the FLIR ONE purchase & use it to check out the trap.

Much to my surprise it is full of bees! The display has a range of color combinations I can use. This one shows the entire box hot with the main cluster on the right 1/2 which is normal, as that is where the entrance is. They were flying in & out.

Left side

 Right side

 Bottom view

The Willys MB

It seems I have more hives that I thought I had.