In a message dated 5/22/2003 5:24:52 AM Pacific Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> On a different note, this year I do not get as many as swarm calls in
> Oklahoma.  How about you folks in the south?  I suspect that the cold
> February had killed off a good number of feral bees.
>

Yoon,

I too, use a 5 gallon bucket to catch the swarm after I have sprayed them
with sugar water. I dump them out onto a tablecloth, which I have put in front of
a medium super (I'm not able to lift the deeps). This way I can look for the
queen and see the fanners. I have had 13 successful swarm calls. One was 15
feet up in a tree. I used the pole of a broken pole pruner and duct taped the
bucket to it. (Ah, duct tape...my favorite tool). Then I would climb up and
spray and then bump the swarm from underneath and then transfer them to the
tablecloth. My worst swarm was on Main Street in Sebastopol. The bees ( I kid you
not), were on the front window and awning of a business called MILK AND HONEY!!!
As there was a huge crowd around I used a whole lot of sugar water to make sur
e the bees didn't fly. This was at the beginning of the swarm season and I
was very inexperienced, as I just celebrated my first year of bee keeping this
month. Well, I didn't have a hive to dump them into, so I just kept going until
I had them all in the bucket and took them home. Well, of course, you know I
drowned most of the bees. It was a shame and a hard lesson to learn. It was a
huge swarm. It filled half of a 5 gallon bucket. Actually, I think now, that
it was 2 swarms. My funniest swarm was the one I took out of the dumpster at an
apartment building. There was an old chair upside down in the garbage and the
bees got inside a flap of material. The whole apartment was fascinated by the
bees. I got the bees started and came back at dusk to pick them up.

Kathy Cox

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