This weekend I really needed a break, the bees have had me running, and building boxes and frames. I've gotten calls, just wrote down the info and told people to sit tight. Some swarm calls, some removal calls.
Today, I decided to come outta my cave and help some desperate folks out with a swarm that flew outta a tree limb, once cut down, and onto a post. The bees stayed on the post all day yesterday. Today they flew up, circled, then landed on another post.
I showed up with a deep, wishin' I would have brought a medium or a nuc. (Gotta swarm, nuc 'em, right?) Perhaps I'll transfer them as the colony was not that large, maybe 2lbs worth.
I checked out the tree limb and there was white comb, all white, so the bees had not been there that long. I'm guessing once the tree limb fell, it killed a bunch of the colony as the numbers were so low.
This was without a doubt the easiest swarm/colony, I have ever boxed. This is what I did. I cleared the small limbs away from the post they were on, off of a small bush, in order to get the hive box right next to the post. I used the smoker to direct them into the deep. Oh, I did take a couple of handfuls of bees and place them atop the frames. After a minute or two I saw the queen, a big fat juicy one, marching towards the entrance to the deep, and the rest is history. They all went in, I secured the entrance, and whalla, easter bees! Ya'll have a good week everybody.
http://picasaweb.google.com/pyxicephalus/March232008...JP
Topic: An Easter Swarm (Read 3310 times)