If I were bit taller

Did you end up hiving them?

Yep I could see the picks
Good job.

I need to make one of those. The neighbors had one in their yard too high for me.

shannonswyatt said:

I need to make one of those. The neighbors had one in their yard too high for me.

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A while back I had bought the longest painters extension pole I could find locally, extends 16'. The bucket is a 3 gal plastic plant pot, very thin plastic and very light as compared to a typical 5 gal bucket. Worked out great.

I was thinking about borrowing one of the water cooler jugs from the office. It is very thin as well.

nice catch. we tried to get 1 from 30+ feet. didn't get the queen. lesson learned. don't mess with bees that high right at dark. : ) stung twice.

shannonswyatt said:

I was thinking about borrowing one of the water cooler jugs from the office. It is very thin as well.

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That should work, might have to cut in half and then you'd have 2 of them. Good luck with it.

I hadn't considered cutting them in half. The only thing I was thinking was I would have to rig up something along one side as a pusher so I could shake the branch, I think the sides would collapse if I didn't when I went to push it up to shake the limb.

shannonswyatt said:

I hadn't considered cutting them in half. The only thing I was thinking was I would have to rig up something along one side as a pusher so I could shake the branch, I think the sides would collapse if I didn't when I went to push it up to shake the limb.

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No real reason to make a pusher, just get your bucket up under them and push up sharply, that will dislodge them. This plant pot I used is as light and flimsy as they get and worked fine staying in shape. As I write this I can see where depending on the cluster where another method may be needed. In my case they had clustered volleyball size and after bumping under the limb they dropped in. If they were clustered laterally along a branch you'd have to bump multiple times or something.

If one sees a swarm way up and not accessible how can one place a swarm box to make it attractive to them. We don't see many hives, if any, at the top of trees so I asume they do move on in time. The question is how to get them to move where we would prefer them to be?

WBVC said:

The question is how to get them to move where we would prefer them to be?

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If we knew the answer to that we could put supplier out of business. Just stack the odds in your favor with baited traps in your area, use a large enough box, put em where you've seen other swarms if any, try the bang method if on high branch. (shotgun slug to the branch not the banging of tin buckets) although some say that works.

Tried the bucket on a pole today. The bees kept flying out before I could get them to the hive body and regrouped on same tree limb. after multiple attempts, I then sprayed the bucket down with sugar water and bam! bees in the hive body no problem.

bee hunter said:

Tried the bucket on a pole today. The bees kept flying out before I could get them to the hive body and regrouped on same tree limb. after multiple attempts, I then sprayed the bucket down with sugar water and bam! bees in the hive body no problem.

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Congrats, good thinking on your part.

Just a (newbee who's never actually caught a swarm) thought;

1. Pool cleaning poles are cheap, light and normally telescopic (so you can fit them in a car/truck)
2. If you figured out a way to rig up a car windscreen cleaner/sprayer unit with an length of tube, you've got a Sugar Water reservoir, 6v pump and nozzle for spaying them.
3. Add bucket/container of choice and you've got a nifty swarm catch-a-majig for next to nix.