Thanks Shawn, again! .....and again! It was our conversation at the school a couple months ago that motivated me to take action after years of just being interested. Yep, my wife bought a pretty good camera (Canon t2i) last year and it shoots beautiful HD video. Though editing and uploading takes hours. I messed up the angle for Shawn's catch and it was getting dark so I don't think this last catch is worth uploading. Can't really see what was going on.
Update on this swarm:
About 5:30pm 06/08/2011 I noticed the swarm had moved to the outside of the hive. I'm pretty confident that they needed more ventilation and a larger entrance. 3 holes .5 inch in diameter on one end weren't enough.
hireal, thanks very much. I understand and agree that the open feeder isn't the way to go. I would have put it inside the hive, but I have no suit yet. (It's on order.)
Plan A: If I had a suit, what I would have done tonight is drill new entrance and ventilation holes on the sides, remove the center topboards of the hive, put the feeder inside, scoop the swarm into it with a dustpan, and then block the entrance they have been using with a follower board.
Plan B: Seeing as I have no suit and not enough courage to try plan A without it, I went to work in my shop after dinner and built 3 (ugly) swarm lure boxes. After putting 2 drops of lemongrass essential oil in each, I placed them strategically around the swarm hoping they will move into one of them tomorrow. They are 50ft East, 50ft South, and 20ft North. The closest one is about 6 feet up in a russian olive tree. The one to the South has the feeder on top and a new water source nearby.