Lost a nice size swarm a few days ago.  I think I was in too much of a
hurry.  Situation: a swarm of bees about the size of a basketball around the
trunk of a crab apple sapling about five feet off the ground.  I placed an
open super on a bottom board with drawn comb with sprinkled sugar water in
the combs.  I then shook the sapling hard and had a bunch of bees fall down
into the box.  I then placed a migratory top on top of the super and
watched.  The bees that had fallen in front of the entrance started running
into the hive.  About 2/3 of the cluster was still stuck to the trunk of the
sapling.  After watching about five minutes and observing some very, very
short waggle dances on the surface of the swarm I decided to shake the tree
a couple more times.  Upon about the third shake the remaining cluster of
bees erupted into the air and slowly vanished into the woods north of the
cluster location.  I immediately surmised the queen with the rest of the
swarm were moving to a less molested location.  Upon recovery of the super
two days later no bees were left in it.  The rest of the bees had either
located the original swarm and rejoined it or they returned to the site
where the cluster originated.  In any case a nice, approximately five pound
swarm of bees was lost.

Lessons learned:  1)  Probably should have stopped after the first shake and
hoped the rest of the swarm joined the bees that were already in the box.
2)  Should have sprayed the swarm on the tree heavily with water to preclude
the swarm flying away and then tried to shake the rest of the swarm into the
box.

Any other suggestions?

Mike Stoops
South central Alabama

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