Well last Thursday, May 29, my swarmy hive swarmed again, after having returned to the hive the last time they swarmed. This time the swarm settled 30 feet up in an aspen tree. I don't own a ladder but did manage to get the swarm down and hived. I thought I would share the method that I used. The materials are inexpensive and the construction is simple. My technique is evolving. Handling the long pole requires a little technique. Materials needed: 3 sections 1/2 inch electrical conduit pipe (24 feet total). 2 conduit connectors 2 1x3x10 inch boards as joint supports 6 conduit clamps with screws 2 photocopy boxes, one with cover. tape for taping the box to the pole 1 sheet to put under the receiving box I assembled the conduit and attached the box to the end of the pole. Fully assembled it was about 24 feet long. I became obvious that the two joints need to be reinforced so a cobbled together some clamps and screwed them to some scrap lumber like so: 1 Board Section ___________________________________________________ /__________________________________________________/| | | | | |o| --------- |o| |o| | | (======| |============ couple ===| |==========| |================) 1/2' Pipe )=====| |============ ===| |==========| |===============( | |o| --------- |o| |O| | | |__________________________________________________|/ clamp clamp clamp ......................................................................... Fully assembled pipes and box ___ 6' ___ 8' ___ 10' / /| ==============|___|================|___|====================/__/ / box |__|/ board board With the added weight of the boards and the box on the end of the pipe it became obvious the I could not stand the pipe up from horizontal to vertical without it bending. Two sections could be raised and the last section added while vertical. The last section should be about your height as you need to be able to handle the 18' pole and insert the last section. I did this be leaning the pole against the tree to steady it. It was also clear that I needed to set up the receiving box two pole sections away to be able to dump the bees into the box. To get the bees I positioned the box below the cluster and thrust it up into the cluster. About 40% of the bees fell into the box. I removed the first pole section and lowered the poles and then tilted the box over to the open receiving box. A good number of the bees got dumped into the box which I then covered. (The box had an entrance cut into the side as well) Two more repetitions, dumping the bees on the sheet in front of the entrance and I was done. The next morning I installed the bees in a newly prepared hive. This swarm's position did permit me to stand directly underneath, thus permitting the pipe to be vertical and able to support the added weight of the bees without bending the full length of the pipe. Anything above 30' would not seen practical given the current construction materials and methods. Direct overhead access permits the 30' lenght. Less than veritcal access would require the swarm to be lower. I hope this encourages others to attempt retrieval safely from the ground rather that perched on the last step of ladder or out on the a limb of a tree. Regards, Jim Moore Second Year Beekeeper 5 hives (1 tbh); 1 Nuc