Solo Swarm

I caught a swarm today! My mentor (aka: my dad) wasn't home, so I went out there to go catch it.

Today wasn't an ideal day for swarm catching or for messing with the bees in general (as you can see by the dark sky behind me in the picture). Also, this is really late in the season for them to be swarming so it's a bit odd, but hey, we get a new hive, they feel like they have more space to spread out. Win-win situation.

I wanted to get them into a new box as quickly as possible because I didn't know how long they'd been sitting there when I saw them. There wasn't much flying activity around the cluster, so it could have happened a while ago. It's not a good idea to be wearing dark clothing as white seems to make them less irritable. So, I took a risk today (with the clouds as well) wearing dark jeans rather than my white ones designated for bee work, but I wanted to get this done.

It would have been nice if they'd picked something closer to the ground, but it still worked out alright. I tried my best to scoop them in with the bee brush, but (not as an excuse) I have a bad left shoulder and holding the box at that angle is difficult and I couldn't hold the box where I really wanted because I needed to end up using the swing set for support. That is to say, I dropped a lot of bees on the ground, which really isn't good.

It had me worried for a while that I'd dropped the queen on the ground. I'm sure you can imagine why that might be a problem. I waited, let the bees "settle" (as much as a swarm can settle) and climbed back up there twice to try again when I noticed them clumping together again. I wasn't sure if it was because the queen was really still in that little triangle crook area, or if they were simply confused and could smell where she used to be, but I figured it was better safe than sorry to scoop more of them back in.

I sprayed the cluster with sugar water before I tried to scoop them. It seems to keep them occupied and calmer. I continued to spray it when necessary (mostly the other two times I went back up to make sure I'd gotten the queen).

I wasn't sure if I had managed to get the queen into the nuc, so I kept an eye on it.

I went back to see if the bees were flying into or out of the box which would give me a good indicator as to which group (inside or outside) still had the queen. After a while, I noticed there weren't many flying around outside anymore and they were flying into the box, settling into their new home. I must have gotten the queen! My worries were quelled.

This photo is from the second time that I tried scooping more of them in.

The cardboard nuc box that I used to hold them for now can only fit a few frames (3-4) to start out with. I used three. To make sure I got the bees in there as best I could, for that moment, I took out the center frame. When I came back and noticed they had calmed down and more of them were going into the hive, I climbed back up and put the third frame in again so they would feel like they had enough space and comb to start a new home in. This step may not have been necessary, but I wanted to make sure I could get as many in there with less jostling, if possible.

It was stressful because I'd never caught one without my dad before, but I'm glad I got to do it. I think I was more nervous than I really needed to be and I may have rushed more than was necessary, but now I know what I can do next time, so it was a good learning experience.

#swarm #sugarspray