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Its that time of year for the Annual Ollie OD Frank swarmathon competition

11K views 44 replies 19 participants last post by  G-Man 
#1 ·
well its that time of year, again. Can anyone beat the high ranking swarm catcher?

I've caught one so far (not with a trap though), so I'd imagine that Ollie already has me lapped by now!

Time for everyone to post their numbers.

:popcorn:
 
#2 ·
I think catching swarms may be the best part of beekeeping too me. Its such a thrill... I am at 10 this year all ready. The last one was Saturday and I was driving down the road about 6pm about dusk and my wife shouted " We just passed a Swarm of bees." I really doubted she saw bee's on the other side of the road with me driving 65 MPH.... Well it was almost dark when I finished, but we got them bees.
 
#5 ·
How do I cash in on all of these competitions named after me? It seems to be a slow year here for bait hives. I might get beaten this time around.
 
#14 ·
This is my first year to try trapping a swarm. I built 5 traps and baited them with a vial of lure and a few drops of LGO. They are basically over sized deep 8 frame hives. I used untrimmed 1x12's. At the time I didn't have the ability to do rabbets, so I just used cross-pieces to hang the frames on. I've since got a router table, and hope to build a couple hive boxes this weekend.

Here's some pics of the boxes I've built so far.
http://http://pinterest.com/survivalbrewing/beekeeping/
 
#15 ·
Put four traps out this year and one just got moved in. It happened to be the one next to the solar wax melter, and there's always a couple of bees around attracted by the smell of the wax. I'll be doubling down on that particular approach of having a trap next to the melter.
 
#20 ·
Leslie, you have about 24 hours to edit your post if you choose to fix the link you posted. Note that your link has dual "http://" sections. That is why it doesn't work. Look for the "Edit Post" button at your original post.

If I just called it a "Bad link", then there might be confusion as to whether the URL itself was "bad" or the content at the link was "bad". :lookout:
 
#28 ·
I am up to 26 to date, it's been an off year. Had some real nice ones though, can't complain about the quality. That is the bait hive count, plus several nice swarms.
 
#29 ·
Charlie, you and odfrank, pick at each other like identical twins with different mothers.

I have only caugt 8 this year, only two in swarm boxes. I have about 20 out this year. Of the 20 I would hope to catch maybe 6 to 8. We haven't had very much swarming so far. Been cool and rainy, bees have not built up enough. I look for June to be better this year.

cchoganjr
 
#32 ·
The bait swarms I've caught so far, (only 5) are good large swarms though rather than those tiny virgin queen swarms caught this time last year. I'm using all 10 frame deeps for swarms traps this year because Uncle Ollie said that's what to use.

I've noticed that swarm season here got off to a late start too.
 
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