[lappe001]

Dear all,
I have the possibility to work with the firemen of my city to remove wild swarms and keep them. According to their statistics, they remove nearly 2000 swarms a year, which would be totally free for me. I'm in northern Mexico so we have Africanized bees. I keep being told by other beekeepers that the swarms will not stay and will go out of the hive, so I will lose them and that it does not make sense to start working with the firemen because of that. I would have to buy a used truck and have an employee to remove the swarms for me (I work in a company). When I run the numbers, they seem fine so I would like to hear other bee keepers opinions. What do you guys think, should I collaborate with the firemen or not? What are the chances that most swarms will go after a couple of days in the hive? Ill be glad if anyone could share their experiences / thoughts with me.
Cheers!
F.

 

[Fivej]

I am not an expert swarm catcher by any means having caught a grand total of one. But, I read a lot and most experienced people have greater success keeping the swarms if they "anchor" it with a frame of open brood. I did this with my swarm last year and they stayed put. Good luck. J

 

[nobull56]

I've started using Queen includes on my swarms. This is either a full queen excluder placed on the bottom board, then hive body with started frames. Or a piece of a excluder blocking the entire entrance. I open after queen starts laying. Since starting this I've only had two hive leave (I think I missed the queen or she was extra small).


My worry is 2000 swarms? Where are they all coming from & is there forage for all the bees?
Seems like a inflated number, in my whole county we get maybe 200-300 a year. Our county is used has an 'Parking lot' for three or four big almond pollinators hives. These big blocks (100-300 hives) through most of our swarms.