[log in to unmask] wrote:

> I came home this a.m. to find a ball of bees (basketball) hanging from a
> tomato plant near my greenhouse about 20 feet from my 2 hives.  Within 3
> minutes I had gathered up a hive body and some drawn comb.  Too late.  When I
> came back they were leaving. I followed them for about 1/2 mile but as I
> climb a fence and looked back up, they were gone and I could not find them.
> What do I do now?  I was intending to make splits and my new queens are to
> arrive next week.  Can I still do this?  I opened both hives and cannot tell
> which one swarmed.  They are both full of bees, brood, honey, pollen.

  This is an experience common to all who have had bees for more than a year.
It is truly frustrating to have a swarm so easy to get and then lose it.  The
easiest way to tell which one swarmed is to look for ripe queen cells, or
perhaps cells that are recently opened and have a little "trap door" hanging
from the end.  The old queen goes with the swarm and leaves behind ripe cells or
virgin queens.  The one which swarmed will also be lacking eggs and very young
brood, because the queen has had to trim down her weight in order to take flight
with the other bees.

I plan this year to purchase swarm traps and to place them around my yards.
These will have pheromone attractants which should entice a swarm to enter
rather than find a new place several miles away.  I have several yards and I
know that I lose swarms every year which I'd rather have myself.  Even in my
home apiary last year I had a super large one land at the very top of a tall
pine tree.  No way could I reach it by any means possible, so I just watched it
sit there for two days before it flew away.

Ted Fischer
Dexter, Michigan USA