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  1. Swarms, Trap-outs, and Cut-outs
    The 2023 swarms season has finally arrived in the Portland, Oregon area. We had a very cold and wet April which pushed everything back. I typically plan to start seeing swarms the first week of April. When April passed without a swarm, I started thinking that maybe there weren’t going to be any...
  2. Beekeeping 101
    Last year my hive absconded. One day it was doing great, the next day it was empty. Call me gun shy, but I am concerned that my current healthy hive might swarm or abscond this coming spring. I would like to put out swarm traps as a hedge against losing the population again. How do I go about...
  3. General Bee Forum Discussions
    For me, swarm season is Spring / Summer. About the latest I've seen a swarm is late August, that's exceptional. By then many hives are expelling drones, there s insufficient time o build stores for winter, swarming makes no sense (in my area). However, I see occasional posts from American...
  4. Swarms, Trap-outs, and Cut-outs
    I have 2 swarm traps I am preparing to deploy. I have Swarm Commander and a few good locations. But I am curious why some ppl are super effective at catching swarms. The numbers I see posted are high. What are the 3 main things that contribute to your success in catching swarms?
  5. General Bee Forum Discussions
    The other day I had a hive swarm. It bypassed my trap and went about 45 feet up in a tree, very hard to get to. It has been there for 6 days and has endured 3 huge rain storms and wind gusts up to 40 mph. They have not done much of anything but there are some flying around it. Over the past 2...
  6. Beekeeping 101
    2nd year- on to a new set of problems. Came home for lunch and heard a roar overhead. Saw a freeway of bees leaving my yard and making their way into the forest. I followed them to a tree where they would cluster about 15 feet off the ground. Called our local swarm catcher and paid him $20...
  7. Treatment-Free Beekeeping
    I am living in Ava Missouri, near the center of town and the bee tree is less than 50 yard from my back door. It was about 3 years ago that I saw the first swarm come out of this tree and not knowing anything about bees I called a beekeeper to come and get them. I just happened to be home when...
  8. Swarms, Trap-outs, and Cut-outs
    Hello all, I'm new here to the forum. I am a beekeeper in my 3rd year, using Langstroth. As of one month ago, my main hive (2 deep boxes with a new medium on top) was queenright, there were eggs and workers were bringing in LOTS of pollen and nectar. 3 weeks ago, they started preparing to...
  9. Swarms, Trap-outs, and Cut-outs
    A swarm was spotted on 3/30/19. It appeared to be about 6 lbs. A fellow beekeeper reported the swarm and we set out to retrieve the bees. By the time we arrived at about 2pm the following day, the swarm was about 1/3 of the original size. There was no wax on the branch. We shook the bees...
  10. Swarms, Trap-outs, and Cut-outs
    So this year i’ve Built 10 swarm traps. I live in the fruit belt of sw michigan and near some lumber company forest land with huge trees. I’m trying to come up with a sound plan for trap placement. I have a location down the road with a clover field next to the forest. My neighbor has been...
  11. Equipment/Hardware
    Has anyone done any work on attracting a swarm to a coalescing spot? I'm thinking of something that can be hung near the bee yard that will look really good and might "catch" a swarm. Maybe something on a rope and pulley to lower right into a lang.
  12. Top Bar & Horizontal Hive Forum
    Hi All, This is my first year beekeeping, I hived a package May 1st here. They were just booming in their hive so I added another hive and performed a split to prevent swarming. I spaced both hives to keep the brood nest open, the honey stores aren't full in either but the original hive keeps...
  13. Beekeeping 101
    I am very new to this. Purchased my first Nuk about 2 months ago. Have a large 8 frame brood box and 2 small supers. All completely filled with capped brood and/or honey. Thought they were happy, however saw a swirling mass of bees hovering above the hive and then landed about 20 feet up on...
  14. General Bee Forum Discussions
    From one hive: May 6th- found capped q-cell and several uncapped (made nuc) May 12th- swarm #1 (caught) May 14th- Swarm #2 (flew off) So my question is-- when do you start the clock for a new queen for remaining bees left in parent hive? The 6th, 12th, 14th?
  15. General Bee Forum Discussions
    Looking back on today, it's pretty hilarious that I actually chopped down a large pine tree in my yard to try and get to a swarm from one of my hives. The second the tree hit the ground, the swarm flew up to the top of another tree 10' feet away:) I'll clean up the mess tomorrow.
  16. Blogs, Podcasts, and Video Presentations
    For the followers of my blog who may have not seen these last two posts… I originally put this over in the swarms forum a while back since it’s about my use of trap hives. But here it is again for those who look for my blog updates from here...
  17. Swarms, Trap-outs, and Cut-outs
    I have caught 2 swarms this season, the first one absconded. I caught the second just 2 days ago and I'm paranoid that they will abscond. The entrance is small enough that I don't think the queen can leave, and I gave them some drawn brood comb. But, there are a fair amount of bees clustered on...
  18. Swarms, Trap-outs, and Cut-outs
    I catched for the first time two swarms, not big, but they are working building combs and bringing pollen and nectar. problem is that I think that both the hives are with laying workers. In the central frame they have 5-6 eggs in each cell. Does swarms arrive without queen or virgin queen ?
  19. Swarms, Trap-outs, and Cut-outs
    Do you distribute a flyer in your area? Please share! https://www.facebook.com/lovehoneybees
  20. Photo/Video Gallery
    New gal - I was able to post pictures once - but have not been able to figure out how to get pictures off my cell phone and post here on beesource. You would think that it worked once it would again - not. OK, yes, must be operator error and new windows 10 on new computer that I hate both...
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