This has been a great season for swarm catching in Northwestern Michigan. Over the last week and a half I have caught 9 swarms (and just missed two more). A friend has caught 14. Running out of equipment is a good thing.
I have caught four swarms in Northern Michigan. The first on 5/14, the second on 5/15, and the last two yesterday on 5/17. I have a buddy who has also caught 4 so far. Last year I caught around 14 swarms, and it looks like it may be another year like last.
I have a job that puts me in orchards all season, so I keep an empty super with frames, top, and bottom board at the ready. Farmers that I work with (I am an agricultural consultant) keep an eye out for me.
Up to nine swarms so far. Caught three yesterday, and two were real whoppers. One barely fit in a deep super. We are having one heck of an apple bloom this year. The bees are really working them well.
Hope this is not off subject, but what do you folks use to catch the swarms? Sounds like everyone has different ways. I keep a deep super with 7 to 8 frames with foundation and 1 or 2 drawn frames with a little honey in them. I use hive staples to attach a bottom board to the box and keep a lid with me.
When I find a swarm I position the box under it as well as I can and remove all but four of the frames. Then after shaking or brushing the bees into the box I add the rest of the frames (carefully!) back in. The top is put on and the box is left there to be picked up that evening.
This method has usually worked very well and almost every time when I return all of the bees are in there. I will say this, most of the swarms that I find are within the reach of my pickup bed where I place the box. I did find two this year that required ladders or standing on the pickup roof so I modified my approach a little. Since most of the swarms are in orchards there are plenty of lower branches for them to hang on.
Caught another swarm yesterday. Up to 11 now. One problem though. The cherry grower that found the swarm for me accidentally sprayed the swarm with Asana (a pyrethroid) before I got there. His beekeeper had already pulled the hives out of the orchard the day before, so he was not expecting to see any bees. It was a 6-8# swarm and underneath it was around 1-1.5# of dead and dying bees. He felt bad about it, but what can you do?
I hope that they make it. Looks to me like it was the outside layer that was killed, so hopefully the queen and enough bees to get started make it. Asana is a contact insecticide so I believe that what damage was done id done (I HOPE). Anyone have any experiences like this?
Caught three more swarms on 5/30. One small one, one medium, and one large. Also found a fourth, and it was HUGE!, but it was high up in a maple tree. The limb it was on hangs right out over a busy road. Can't win them all!
I just captured a swarm from a wild hive by my mother's house on Wednesday. One of my hives just swarmed today (quite the independence day). First time I've ever witnessed a swarm in action! Super cool. Lewiston, Michigan (Northern Lower Peninsula)
05/06/10 Grand Rapids MI 49504 My hive. They lit in a branch to big to cut and too small for the ladder to lean on. Tied the vac to my belt and stuck the container into the ladder rungs, got 90% of them, about a two pounder.
Had a swarm Friday May 14th in Milford Michigan, Can from my other hive. Weather has been cool, mid to upper 60's. Lots of rain but had 2 dry days prior to swarm.
Had a swarm land in a tree at the back of my yard this past Sunday, 5/16. Swarmed from a feral colony in a tree on other side of neighbors house. She saw it swarm, I tracked it to the tree it landed in. After spending the night, it moved on.
Hey LSBees. Nice looking swarm. Just out of curiosity, is that a feral hive in the base of that tree in your first pic? My eyes could be playing tricks on me.
First ever post!
Swarm from new package purchased 4/20/2010. Italians from Georgia.
Swarmed July 1, 12:30 pm. Beautiful crystal clear day about 75 deg, low humidity, cool night. Howell, Michigan. The large swarm is 50 feet up in nearby tree on July 3rd at 12:30 pm. No way to retrieve them. We've set out two nucs with swarm lure. One near the apiary, one about 250 yards away. I hope they'll select one of our nucs. Otherwise, a $75.00 investment gone. inch:
Yesterday I was doing someyardwork in Southeast Michigan when I noticed one of my hives was getting a lot of action. I watched for a while and thought it was an orientation flight, a lot of the bees looked like they were coming out 8 to 10 feet from the entrance, circling a little bit and then going back inside. Cool I thought that is kind of fun to see. Then after a couple more passes across the yard I saw the bees boiling out of the hive, and the air was filled with the buzzing of the bees.
I stood in the middle of the swarm, my wife said it looked like I was completely surrounded but none really came within 2 to 3 feet of me. The cloud slowly rose about 30 feet in the air and then hovered over our back fence and finally after about 20 minutes it had settled in a tree in the empty lot behind our house, about 30 feet up in a branch.
We got an empty nuc from the garage and set it up directly beneath them, and I saw a few bees checking it out, after a couple of hours I checked again and saw 5 - 10 bees going in and out and all around it, so I was feeling pretty good that they might commit. The only other thing nearby is an old wood pile and I would not want to have to try to cut them out of there. Or my garage attic... again, not eager to do a cut out.
So I kept an eye on the swarm up in the tree, and at 9:00 last night as it was getting dark, there they are still up there. So I watched a movie and went to bed. When I awoke this morning I thought I would see if I had had any luck and they were still up in the tree. So now I have to wait until I get home from work to see what they have decided.
So, a couple of questions, is it unusual for a swarm to overnight on a tree branch?
Is it too late in the season for a swarm to survive, I heard somewhere "a swarm in july isn't worth a fly"?
What about the colony that the swarm came from? They seem very healthy, I had just checked them the day before, the top medium is almost half full of honey.
Also another note, this hive was the second of three swarms that came from my first hive this May. So I have gone from 1 hive to 5 in just one year.
Great Day!
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