First swarm this season (YAY!!!) but I havn't run into this kind of problem yet. At first I was happy to find that the swarm was not 20 feet from my hives (maybe its from one of them)...but its also 20 feet in the air. Me (at 6 foot) on top of an 8 foot ladder, with a bucket on 10 feet of pvc pipe could probably reach them. So that was my plan...but as the rain picked up and light is starting to fade I think i'm going to have to wait till tomorrow and hope the rain doesn't pick up and that they are still there when I can better maneuver. It looks like one of the bigger swarms I've had the luxury of finding.. 5 gallon bucket easy.
But there is a plus to this inclement weather - now I get to bounce some ideas off my friends at beemaster!
The swarm looks bigger than my bucket..its spread on many thin branches (medium sized vines really). The tree is tall but maybe softball sized trunk going up the 20 feet. My plan was to put a sheet down, ladder on up there with my bucket-pole, and maneuver the swarm in there...and using a rope pull the lid over the top..ease the device down and then move them to the hive ...which is all set up close to where they are now.
Other option - I have a chainsaw so I could cut the whole thing down if I had to..or get up as high as safety allows and cut from there.
Any other ideas? Which option would you take? I should have got a better perspective shot taken so you could see how high they were and the surrounding conditions but hopefully I've described the situation well enough.