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How big do these things get?

1818 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  odfrank, 
Phoebee
Our mentor called us at 7 AM. "Hey, wanna come and help me collect a swarm?"

Well, why not. Haven't tried one yet, but with people describing a cluster of bees hanging on a branch that you plop into a box, it should be quick and simple, right?

Shucks, last week someone described a softball-sized cluster ... just snipped off the twig it was on and her friend drove her home holding the twig.

So we get there and there's this little Bradford Pear about 12 ft high, and starting about 6 ft up and running about 4 ft up from that is this thick mass of sleepy bees on the trunk. The mentor stares at this for a while, wishing they were on a branch instead, and noticing all the branches on this little ornamental tree, trying to figure out how to get them into a nuc box. We estimated 5 pounds of bees, easily the largest swarm he'd ever tried to catch.

An hour and a half later we had maybe 3/4 of them in a nuc box. Everything is sticky from syrup spray. There was still a pound or more stubbornly returning just above where we could reach with a brush. Shaking the tree got them flying but they went back to that spot. Could be the queen there? Can't tell.

We took what we could to his apiary and established them in a hive (they pretty much filled a 10-frame deep). We'll be back this afternoon with his bee vac to see if the rest have hung around.
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Phoebee

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Discussion Starter · #3 ·
The details given on this swarm were a bit off. My friend was told this swarm was at shoulder-height, but in truth ran to about 10 ft. One look at it and he wished he'd brought his bee vac. He had also not brought a ladder since it was not supposed to be high.

The spot where they were congregating after a shake was 10 ft up. At one point he accidentially set his sprayer to "jet", and quickly discovered it could send a squirt of syrup up to the high cluster. So maybe you could do the same with Bee Quick? We were just trying to get them quiet so they could be brushed down.

Once the majority were in the nuc box, they set a crew to spraying pheromones, and we did start to get some "walk in business". But that top cluster was pretty stubborn, making us think the queen might be there. We put queen lure in the nuc box.
 
Phoebee

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According to my uncle the fly fisherman, the lowest form of life on Earth is people who fish with worms.

Still, leaving a portion of that diminished swarm up in the tree seems like cruel and unusual punishment.
 
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