Bee Time

The other day we were out working in the garden and I looked over to the horses and saw a large swam of insects. Turns out it wasn't just any insects but a swam of honey bees from the hive in the garden. We had added another box to the hive only last week and had noticed there were tons of bees crowded in the box. Seems in the spring time with a healthy thriving colony they are increase in numbers, run out of room, and so start making new queens. The old queen takes off with a bunch of the bees to start a new hive. The swam is the bees way to find a new home. They moved in cloud of buzzing for about 20 minutes and started settling on a branch about 50' up in a tree. The queen picks a spot to camp out with the group while the scout bees go and look for a new home. After consulting with the family bee keeper and some books/internet we decided to try and "capture" the swam and make a new hive.

A little hard to see but the bees are starting to form a mass.

 There was a new box ready to go from a colony that hadn't survive last years drought. One problem was how to get them out of the tree? To high to reach with a ladder. So by standing on top of the horse trailer and multiple attempts with the brick tied to the end of a rope (and tried the arrow on a string trick) we got a line over the branch they had lighted on. The mass of bees was about as big as a good size watermelon. The tree wouldn't bend enough to bring them closer to the ground so I shook the branch enough to get them to take flight again.

That's a lot of bees flying around!

One good thing is the bees are not aggressive when they are swarming even though they look and sound intimidating. Off they went again in a cloud of buzz. This time they stopped in a different smaller tree closer to the ground.

If the swam had happened while we were on a different part of the farm or a day when everyone was gone they would have taken off and no one would have known. Looking at the original hive there were still lots of bees left and ones in the swam wouldn't have been missed.

A comb from the original hive after the swarm.

In the new tree they were now almost accessible from a ladder but to far out on a branch. I cut the limbs out from below them and with an extension ladder could reach the one they were on. I got a rope up and over a higher brach and tied it to the bee limb. With one person on the ground holding tension on the rope and another with a box below the bees I slowly cut through the branch. As is started to give way tension on the rope controlled the branch and slowly lowered it to the waiting contained below. A quick cut of the small branch they hung on and we had them contained.

Just about captured!

The mass of bees surrounding their queen stayed mostly intact with only a few flying around. Spraying the bees with sugar water kept them happy and branch and all they went into the waiting new hive.  The new hive box which had a pollen patty and more sugar water to help entice them to make this their new home.

First Swarm in it's new home.

10 days later the new colony has stayed put and seems to be doing fine.

Then yesterday the original hive swarmed again!  Still mostly taken as a sign of a healthy colony the "Afterswarm" is usually a smaller mass of bees accompanied by one or more new virgin queens also looking to start a new hive.  Luckily this time they stopped on a low hanging branch next to an open space in the yard. In about an hour we had them captured and in box. Time will tell if they like it and stay. It was still amazing to see it again.

The Afterswarm

Bee note:  When the bees are swarming they are reported to be the most docile.  The are full of food and with no hive to protect they are not aggressive (even after I shook them out of a tree).  Over the years I had become more allergic after having been stung a few times.  I have an EpiPen just in case.  But no one was stung during the captures.