I try my very best to control swarming (stay quiet Dallas), but one was bound to try to get away.
And since I do a lot of swarm removal, I don't get stupid bees, they are well versed at being as difficult as possible (they have to try to show me up from the last time I captured them!) This was a swarm of bees that alighted at this height and I had to get a swarm trap close to them to get them to move and to eventually be hived.
So here is the swarm that picked one of my tallest oak trees. And of course it has a lot of branches to tangle lines and make dropping the swarm trap difficult.
This is the swarm at full height from a distance.
Notice the swarm in the red circle at the tree top.
The red line is the approx 8' top of a swing set.
Yeap, that puts the bees at every bit of 50' up.
Because of all the branches I had to use a secondary guide line to pull the swarm trap around the tree branches as I lowered it to the ground.
This is swarm trap on top of the final hive (not placed in the yard yet of course).
The question one has to ask, how do you get a line 50'+ in the air and over a tree?
Try it in your own front yard for kicks.
Try throwing by hand.
Then Try swing it around in a circle and timing the release.
Then remember all those fishing trips you cast into the tree.
Yeap, tie a 3/4" nut (tire lugnut) on the line (8-10 lb) and chuck it over the tree.
Then pull a heavier line up with that.
It works very well - if you have good aim (else its a bit frustrating)
Drinking makes it more fun, but can complicate matters too (even hurt other people if your not careful) .
PS- These bees were still clustered after 50-60 MPH winds and driving rain all last night.
It is suspected that a tornado hit just 6-8 miles north of this location.