On a recent thread Robo and Iddee gave a tip that really helped me out this week.
The tip was (paraphrasing) "that on a swarm that is in the process of moving in, or that has just recently moved in within the last day or two, you can put a trap out funnel in place to quickly get the bees to abandon their new home before they have time to get it established."
On Tuesday I got called out to a commercial shop that had scout bees checking out an office. 20 or 30 bees buzzing around the outside of a wall crack and a few getting into the office coming up through a window ledge.
Low and behold as I'm explaining to Becky the store owner what the bees are doing out by the crack in the outside wall , here comes the swarm flying in on perfect Que like I had orchestrated it! :lau:
I quickly set up a baited hive for a swarm trap, scooped 1/2 a pound so worth of bees into the top of the hive, sealed most of the crack with caulk, and put a funnel in place to keep the majority of bees from entering the building and let the 300 - 400 that had gotten in back out.
The queen must have made it into the wall and not come back out through the funnel till late in the day because it took the girls till early evening to accept the bait hive but they finally did, and I took them home last night, job completed, quick $250 in my pocket.
Thanks Robo and Iddee for the great tip I owe you both a beer. :cheer:
Don
Swarm arriving