Really Convenient Honeybee Swarm Retrieval
The other day I had a honeybee swarm gather in one of my white pines, and they ended up about waist high, only 30' from my hives. This would be a super easy swarm to collect, so I strap on the GoPro and record the whole process of getting them out of the tree and into the box.
This is not meant to be an instructional video by any means, but it shows how docile and cooperative swarms usually are, and it demonstrates one method I use to snag them. I only received one sting and it was totally my fault as I accidentally pinched a bee between my thumb and index finger.
The hardest part of the process for me was gathering up enough hardware to make a suitable hive for them, as I have been out of the hobby for almost 4 years and wax moths had decimated all of the empty hives. To make matters worse, I already had two separate swarms move into the old hives I threw behind the shed earlier this spring, and finding enough useable frames for this swarm was the most time-consuming part of the ordeal. (It sure looks like someone is trying to tell me that I should get back into beekeeping though.)
Lastly, I'm not 100% sure where these bees came from. Like I mentioned earlier, the only two hives I currently have are swarms that moved in about a month ago. I have been checking and managing these bees over the last few weeks and although I didn't go frame by frame through the hives, all seemed well. I find it hard to believe that a swarm from a month ago could have produced enough brood in that time to warrant swarming, but then again, the nectar flow has been insanely heavy this year so maybe they've filled the brood boxes with honey and the queen had nowhere to lay? (That would be pretty incredible as I have two deep and one medium hive body on each for brood, with no intent on collecting honey this year.) It could also be that yet another swarm from a near-by beekeeper sniffed out the old hardware and decided to check it out like the two prior. It is hard to tell at the moment, but once things settle back down, I'll go in and check things out. Enjoy!