Bees Removed - ANY HEIGHT!!

[NWIN Beekeeper]

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.

[Cindi]

Jeff, you had your work cut out for you that day for surely, I am amazed at what you did!!!  Beautiful and most wonderful day, Cindi

[BenC]

Good job.  Don't forget to put the tire lugnut back where it belongs when done  :-D  Did they stay in the box?  Do you have any empty boxes out to try to lure swarms?  If I used a fishing rod I'd have a knotted up mess, I'm just no good at it.  I use something like this:

http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=98327&catID=34

[NWIN Beekeeper]

[Don't forget to put the tire lugnut back where it belongs when done ...]

Its off the car of the neighbor that I don't like, I have four more tries if I loose the nut in a toss!  :evil:

I'm not going to admit to how many tosses (Or how much line it takes to get exactly where you want it).

I have locked them down for the day to force some acceptance to the box.
It's been too hot and too close to a dearth to leave them alone.
I'm planning on putting some feed on them to force some comb building and improve my chances.
I could pull some brood, but I'd just as well toss in some drawn extracted frames and let the queen lay them up nice for the winter population.

[ Do you have any empty boxes out to try to lure swarms? ]

No, but I better do so. I like trimming most my lower branches on my trees (now I'm going to pay) so everything alights higher than my tree pole saw. I should place a few calculated swarm traps, I'd probably make a few more splits that way than I anticipate.

I have my queens marked in various colors, I'm curious to find out just where this one sneaked out of.
I kind of doubt that something feral landed around my yard.
It'd be funny if she turned out to be 2 years ago's color (a lost swarm from last year).
Makes you wonder just how absolute supercedure is? Only Nature knows I suppose.

-Jeff

[indypartridge]

You managed to get your trap positioned over the swarm via a higher branch, then lowered the trap? I'm impressed. That must have taken some maneuvering. I've had swarms high in my oaks, and I've just waved at them and wished them luck.

[JP]

This is how I remove bees from 50' or I wave goodbye to 'em!


...JP