>Speaking of swarms, has anyone had luck with swarm traps and pheremone >lures? I lost a *February* swarm, a couple years ago, and wonder if I'd >had a trap if they might have at least stayed in the vicinity... > >There's nothing like coming out to your backyard one balmy February morning >and watching a cloud leaving your hive... > >Jane B. [[log in to unmask]] My hives are 50 miles from my house. One rainy weekend this summer I had to delay a manipulation by one day (decided to wait for better weather). As I approached the first hive a swarm emerged. If I had been able to make the previous days visit I may have stopped the swarm. I do understand the sinking feeling of not being able to stop swarming. I still managed to get good production from this hive by manipulating brood and queens between hives to average hive strength between hives within my apiary. Unlike my experiences with bees in North Africa (A. mellifera var. intermissa) managing bees here in NY is very easy. Guess the biggest difference is availability of bees and supplies, but the bees here are soooooo mellow, predictable and there is so much less variation between the hives. My experiences in Tunisia include extreme variation between activity strength, and productivity which always amazed me. :-) Mike