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Author Topic: Caught my 1st swarm!!  (Read 1443 times)

Offline Spear

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Caught my 1st swarm!!
« on: April 01, 2014, 03:45:36 pm »
I went to check on my 2 hives that are in my '2nd bee yard' and add a super on each. As we drive up I see a lot of flying insects in a little 'field' just in front of the parking place. 'What are those?' I ask my son. 'Bees!' He answers. 'No I don't think so?' ever the skeptic me, until I open the car door and hear the buzzing. The swarm must of just landed a few seconds before we arrived because there were still a lot of bees in the air. We check our hives & add the supers. When we come down the swarm is still there. 'Pity we don't have anything to catch them in...' I say giving them up for lost. We walk up the road to have a look at the bee yard of another beekeeper we have no met yet, just to see what he has done with his hives. The play in the grass a bit. I phone my mother and tell her about the swarm. Then a plan starts forming. We have some mew hives that have not been filled yet and we have some nice frames of feed from the hives that we have moved into new boxes...
I pack the boys into the car ans we race to my mother and collect everything we need and some stuff we might need and some stuff we don't need but you never know, oh and my mother. We race back to the swarm - about 3 hours have past since we saw them last and it is now about 6pm. We get there and I dive out the car to check and there they still are sitting in the grass where we left them. I'm too excited to put om my action cam as planed and just start setting up to catch them. At 1st I try scooping them up and dumping them in the hive - 4 frames nice and full of capped feed - but I mostly just end up chasing them up into air, & I take 2 stings on the same hand through the glove. So we go get something to eat and let them settle down again. When we come back I take it much slower and cut bits of grass and plants that they are sitting on and shake them into the hive or onto the white sheet I have in front of the hive. After I short while I notice the march has started and we call it a night. I'll go back tomorrow afternoon and check if they are all in the hive and close them up and move them to my garden for a few weeks until I can set up a place for them in my 2nd bee yard.
Here some pics I took:










Offline HomeSteadDreamer

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Re: Caught my 1st swarm!!
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2014, 04:11:26 pm »
Congratz.  I love the walk in easy ones.

Offline GSF

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Re: Caught my 1st swarm!!
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2014, 08:12:55 pm »
Now how cool is that? Congrads!
When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you - then you know your nation is doomed.

Offline ronledford

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Re: Caught my 1st swarm!!
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2014, 11:35:33 pm »
Awesome!
"I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves." Harriet Tubman (c. 1822 – 10 March 1913)

Offline Joe D

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Re: Caught my 1st swarm!!
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2014, 01:56:42 am »
Way to go.




Joe

Offline cdray

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Re: Caught my 1st swarm!!
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2014, 11:14:38 am »
Very cool!

Offline Spear

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Re: Caught my 1st swarm!!
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2014, 01:47:33 pm »
Sadly when I went to fetch the swarm they had decided to move on... Oh well you win some you lose some...
Still had a great time trying to catch them and next time I'll stay until they are all safely in the hive and move them right away.
Live and learn!

Offline flyboy

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Re: Caught my 1st swarm!!
« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2014, 08:05:21 pm »
You've inspired me.
Cheers
Al
First packages - 2 queens and bees May 17 2014 - doing well