Terry asks about what to do with a swarm once collected:


You'll get much of the same response on fetching swarms as there's not
all that much to it.

The idea is just to get the queen to fall into your box or hive -
usually by shaking the branch(es) with a box or hive underneath.  If you
can imagine the queen in the middle of the bunch then you shouldn't have
much trouble shaking her off.  It usually helps to place a white sheet
below your ladder or box to keep the bees from getting lost.

After shaking, place your box somewhere close to where the swarm used to
be and the remaining bees on the branches will smell the queen and start
flying to the box.  It takes about  10-15 minutes for the bees to start
to scramble in search of their queen.  I'll usually place my box on the
top of a stepladder (within 5 feet or closer) and they'll sniff her out
pretty easily.  By dusk you should have all the bees (or within 45
minutes if you want to take 90% of them).  If the bees don't search out
the box, you've missed the queen and will have to re-shake the
branch(es) where they congregate.

After you have the swarm boxed, simply take them to your new hive,
remove the top and dump them in.  While the box is over the top of the
hive, smack the bottom of the box to unleash clinging bees.  Don't worry
about the bees flying as they'll follow the queen which you should have
dumped into the hive with the majority clinging to her.  Remove the box
from the area (20' is fine) or you're sure to have bees fly back for the
remnants of pheromone on the box.  Wait for the bees to start walking
down into the hive through the frames and slowly maneuver the inner
cover in place.  I start by sliding it forward 3/4 the way, then all but
the last 1/2" - and 10 minutes later, I'll close the thing fully.   Put
on the top (with feeder!) and it's done.  Be SURE to do this in mild
weather when the bees have enough daylight to see where the hive
entrance is.

Here's a trick to keep the bees from absconding:
On the bottom of your new hive, between the hive body and the bottom
board, place a queen  excluder.  If the queen stays, the hive stays.
I've had one lively basketball-sized hive abscond on me and none since
with the use of excluders.  After you see the queen is laying, remove
the excluder.


Matthew Westall - Castle Rock, CO
(p.s. - If you can't 'shake' the branches for swarms then a bee-vacuum
would come in handy.  E-mail me & I'll send you (or anyone here) a link
on how to construct one complete with pictures.)



Terry Reynolds wrote:

> I'm in my first year of bee keeping and lost my first swarm over
> Memorial weekend.  Upon returning from work this evening I found
> another
> small swarm had obsconded.  My husband and I failed this weekend

> And if by chance we are successful at getting all the bees off the
> branch and accepting the "hive", how do i go about getting the
> cardboard
> box out of there and the rest of the frames in amongst the bees?
>