[Trin]

So after catching a swarm today, seeing them fly in. I began to wonder......If I had a bee trackers box, and caught some of the bees as they swarmed in. Thinking that they are not oriented to the new location possibly?? If I drove them a mile away and fed them some honey or sugar syrup would they possibly return to the hive they swarmed out of? I noticed these bees seemed to come in from the North East. Of course they might have left 2 days ago and moved a few times.....

I am not aware of any hives within a 2 mile radius of my house, more like 5. So my guess is that there is a hollow tree or building that has had a hive in it before and thus attracts swarms every so often. The last swarm I caught 4 years ago had a second small swarm cluster on the same day in line with the same direction the current swarm came from.

Guess i won't know until I try...

 

[JWPalmer]

I don't know about tracking them after the swarm, but I bet you could beeline scouts before the swarm moves in. They fly back and forth between the hive and the new location.

 

[Trin]

Good point. I will file that away for future possible use.

I am not aware of any BK near me, but Grey Goose mentioned that backtracking has found him a stack of old hives in someones barn....

Off to get a bunch of deep frames that got spun out a few days ago.