billy t
05-21-2005, 09:15 PM
I picked up a swarm today. Kind of small one. they were swarmed on the trunk of a new tree the homeowner had just put in so I didn't have the option of shaking them into the hive body as i usually do. Not having any other choice I started picking handfulls and chucking them in the hive body. after I got quite a few of them in I saw just one or two of them standing and fanning pheronome on the entrance so I thought I must have the queen, I then started just shaking the tree and hoping they would walk in. well after about fifteen or twenty minutes of this most of them went in. I put the hive in the bee yard and was going to keep them penned up for a while but it was so hot and I did not have a screen cover or entrance block so I just opened the entrance and tipped up the cover thsainking if the queen was there they would stay. well they didn't first they all came out on the porch in a big crowd Well I thought they might go in at sundown, so I kept sson working in the tomato patch. when it got cooler and I was finished I got on the tractor to go to the house. When I drove up to see what they were doing, they wer flying in a tornado pattern in a whirlwind around the hive. Well I stood and watched and thought well I lost that bunch. after a while they settled on a mesquite bush. I got the loppers and started cutting and got them all in one bunch and put them back into the hive. Now does that mean the queen is not with them or are they just still in a swarm mode?