I was at work and got a call from a guy in the parks dept at a near by municipality. He was like how much would you charge to get a swarm of bees. Well it depends on the situation, if they hanging 5-6 foot off the ground where I can get to them maybe nothing, if they are 20 ft up in there, good luck with that. Well they are maybe 8ft in the air in a tree, and I have a ladder. I happen to have a hive box in the back of my truck I will come look at them (it was maybe 10 mins from my work and I'm the boss). I get there and it is a nice size swarm hard to guess but I would say 4- 5 lbs of bees, but his 8 ft was probably closer to 20 ft in the air. He did have a 12 ft ladder (I'm guessing, but it was a pretty tall ladder). So I set it up to the side of the bees and clip some branches out of the way, Reposition the ladder, come back up with my NUC box and lift it almost arms length above my head putting a good chunk of swarm down in the box, reach up with my other arm and shake (did I mention that's my arm with the broken wrist LOL) the branches. Bees fall down in the box, I sit it down on the top of the ladder and wait for everyone to come marching home. While this is happening I start explaining to the guy what happened and where they probably came from. Their main hive is probably right over there or over there in a hollow tree, in some ones back yard or (at this point I spy a tree 50 foot way with bees flying around a crack) RIGHT THERE. How funny is that I found the parent hive. Brought bees down on ground, put the frames back in and headed back to work. The bees are on my back porch right now in the shade. I got just the place for them when I get home. I'll keep everyone updated as to if the queen survived.
Rod
Rod