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65K views 242 replies 66 participants last post by  nailbender0259 
#1 ·
5/26 First Swarm from a NUC I picked up on the 21st of May. They set down at 70 feet high, no chance to get them...

13850
 
#28 ·
Murfreesboro, TN

Got another swarm today. Same place as last Wed. Larger swarm this time. Strange thing though. As I was walking up to the tree that was suppose to have the swarm I saw bees flying around between that tree and a large cedar that was just ahead of me. Seemed to be a little swarm in the cedar tree too. After looking longer I realized that the bees had been there for a few days as they had already made comb.

When I cut the branch with the swarm and put it on the sheet in front of the hive the bees started marching in and fanning. In fact the bees a foot or two away and the sheet were fanning too!

Went back to the hive/comb on the cedar tree and it had declined in size and could see the comb better. Guess some of the bees went to the hive I set up.

Had a little 3-frame medium nuc with me. I cut the cedar branch and threw it in front of the hive. A lot of the bees fell on the cover which was upside down. After a while I put the cover on lightly so as to not squish any of the ladies. As soon as I did that the rest of the bees on the ground and around the box went into the nuc. Now I am pretty sure there is no queen.

Think I might take these bees and just leave them in the nuc, feed them SW and let them make me some comb.

Going to go pick up both boxes shortly at dusk.
 
#29 ·
Smyrna, TN

Got another swarm today. Not sure how much but at least the size of a soccer ball or better. :thumbsup: :) See if I can put a pic with this later.

Running out of equipment. Started this year with 4 hives. Purchased 4 packages and 1 5-frame nuc. Made 4 splits and the rest are swarms. :lookout:

Currently up to 21 colonies. :eek:
 
#31 ·
Murfreesboro, TN

Got a call for a swarm at an elementry school. Stayed there for almost 3 hours. After I got the swarm hived, the bees kept coming. Finally got tired and closed up the hive and left. I got there probably 1.5 to 2 hours after the swarm arrived.

Ist it possible that these were just stragglers or was it bees that were still coming to joing the swarm?

While there got a call for another swarm but it was too late to go. Will call back around 6:30 in the morning. If the swarm is still there, I will go and get it.

I really need to get some nucs made. Most of these swarms could be hived in a 5-frame nuc. Especially if they were high body nucs.
 
#32 ·
Lavergne, TN

Got another swarm today. Pretty good size. Put it in a cardboard box and brought it home. Started a 5-frame med nuc last night. Finished it up this morning and got a coat of primer on it after I got back with the swarm. Once the primer dried, I hived the swarm in the nuc. Seemed to be more bees than a 5-frame nuc, but without any comb, they should be okay and busy making comb. Never did see the queen. Put a pint of bees in each of 2 smaller hives in the yard to boos their numbers from this swarm.
 
#33 ·
Murfreesboro - Christiana, TN

Hived a swarm this morning. Around 3 - 4 pounds of bees. Got the call last night. Said the swarm had been there for around 2 days. Nice looking bees. Were in a very small cherry tree around 4' off the ground.

Trying to make some deep 5-frame nucs. But can't make them fast enough. That goodness, I still had 4 cardboard nucs. 1 in a tree, 2 on the carport and 1 not made up yet. Well I have another 1 on the carport but the bees have been swarming into it since yesterday late afternoon.
 
#34 ·
Nolensville, TN

Got a nice swarm this morning. At least 4 pounds. Hived them into a 5-frame cardboard nuc with junk for frames. Brought them home and about 45 minutes later I moved them over to a 5-frame Nuc that I made (high body) with a screened bottom.

Darn girls wouldn't completely leave the cardboard nuc so I left it beside the wooden nuc. Came back a little while ago and those girls were bearding the outside of the cardboard nuc and in the corner in the inside of the nuc (no frames, took them out). Good frames in the wooden nuc.

So this time I dumped them into the wooden nuc, and hurled the cardboard nuc as far as I could so that they wouldn't have the smell of it nearby. Left the top open on the wooden nuc. Hopefully they will settle down and I can close it up.

Don't want to loose this swarm. It's large enough that it should fill out all 5 frames in a week. Can then added another box on it or move them to an 8-frame or 10 frame box.
 
#35 ·
Lebanon, TN

Just got back from hiving a large swarm that was in a young redbud tree about 3 feet off the ground. Just put the hive under the tree, bent the limb over and gave it a shake.

Must have been around 7-8 pounds of bees. About 2 feet across in a V shape and probably 3 inches or more thick.

Weird thing is that I did not see even 1 drone! Is that unusual, especially for this time of the year? All my other swarms had drones.

Took it on to a friends farm where I am keeping some of my hives. Now up to 8 there. All are swarms or splits.

Thank goodness we have a 2nd church service!!!
 
#36 ·
Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

Got a call yesterday from animal control about a swarm in someone's back yard. Went there and found a fairly large mass of bees, but it was more than 40 feet up in a large oak tree, completely inaccessible. I put out a hive with lemon grass oil sprinkled near the entrance to see if I could entice them. A few scouts were checking it out when I left but so far the swarm hasn't moved in or left. Any suggestions?
 
#37 · (Edited)
Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

A quick update on my swarm situation which I posted above. I went back to see if the scouts might have directed the swarm into my bait hive (no luck) and arrived just as the bees were beginning to leave. I fully expected them to fly away, never to be seen again, but instead they landed in a nearby bush about 10 feet off the ground. I had a step ladder so I captured them in a box with no difficulty and had them in a hive 30 minutes later. Amazingly, in that short amount of time between getting them in the box and hiving them, they had already produced a few dozen little spots of wax on the cardboard. They seem ready to go to work. And this was a big swarm too, covering almost all 10 frames of the deep hive body. So now they're in their new home, being feed and, hopefully, settling in. That was my third—and last—swarm of the season.
 
#38 ·
Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

Nashville, TN

7/2

Got a call in Nashville about a swarm. Was on the ground. Owners said it was huge the night before. Area of bees on the ground then was about 4'x4'. This was a small mound of bees. Maybe 1.5 -2 pounds at the most. But it ended up having a queen. Got most of the bees and the queen.
 
#39 ·
Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

Murfreesboro, TN
7/2

Had another swarm in my yard. This one went in a cardboard nuc I had in the peachtree. Went out yesterday and they were flying in and out. Today very few bees.

Had around 4 swarms last week out of my yard and then they disappeared the next day from my nucs that I put them. Beginning to think the bees went back to their hives.
 
#40 ·
Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

A small cantaloupe-sized swarm issued from one of my hives late this afternoon and landed on another hive causing considerable fighting. I collected them into a makeshift hive and will put them in a more permanent home in the morning. I'll treat them as a nuc and maybe combine them with another hive later on.
 
#41 ·
Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

Collected a cantelope size swarm on 8/7/09 in Beaumont, Texas. They had built wildcomb about the size of an egg, so they might have been there a couple of days. I know they had been there 24 hours from when I picked them up.
 
#43 ·
Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

4/12

Got call from another beek about a cutout near me. Called owner. Was a swarm. Went to pick it up and it was gone. Said it was there when I talked with owner earlier.

Said it had been there for 2 days. Can't have what you can't get. :cool:
 
#44 ·
Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

Got another swarm call on 4/15..........from another beek not too far from me. He is just going into his second year, 79, and his health is not too good.

Anyway, went to help him and the bees had just left. Said he hadn't seen the swarm the day before but I believe they had been there for some time. How likely is it that the bees swarmed and then found a home and left the tree in just hours?

Sad thing is that the hive that swarmed was left with a lot of bees, brood comb (some with honey and pollen) but no queen, eggs, larva or capped brood.
 
#45 ·
Knoxville, TN 2-fer

Got a call for a cutout yesterday, showed up to assess the situation today and there is a swarm 25' off the ground but directly over the roof ridge and only 8-10' above that in addition to the soffit-hive. Medium-sized swarm, wasn't prepared to collect and it's going to rain all night so if they are still there in the morning I'll get them at that time.
 
#48 ·
Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

37130

Got a call tonight from a lady in Auburn Town, TN. Has a swarm about 10' up in a tree. Bees swarmed out of a tree hive this afternoon. She wants the bees and wants to be a beek. Got to be at a house around 7:45 in the morning for a tree crew that is cutting down a huge tree that has a bee hive in the main trunk. May be a huge hive.

Anyway, going to get this swarm for the lady in the early morning around 6:30. Charging her $93. $40 to come out and get the swarm (22 miles away) and $53 for a 5 frame nuc with 4 frames of foundation and 1 frame of old comb. Think that's fair enough. Swarm is about 10' up. Home is an easy drive. Nuc is one I built from the instructions that were put up on this forum a month or so ago using plywood. Plywood is cabinent grade that was given to me so all I have in the nuc is labor, glue, nails, primer, and paint. :thumbsup:
 
#50 ·
Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

Got a basketball sized swarm today. It was on the ground in a field of two-foot tall grass making capturing it a challenging three-hour process. I couldn't shake them into the box or scoop them up so I started picking as many up by hand as I could, but that was like herding cats. Then I lucked out and found the queen. Once she was inside I just sat back and watched them go in.
 
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