Swarms

We spent a fair bit of this weekend checking out potential swarms in our beehives. Its been a bad year for swarming apparently, possibly El Nino changing the weather? Or who knows?

But its good to get on top of it and be as proactive as possible. Occasionally one will get away on you though, and then in come the swarm busters to clean up.Now the top pic is a bit less sharp because I was standing A LONG WAY AWAY with my camera on zoom as David scooped up the swarm and poured it back into a new hive box. You will notice the high tech tool (which would have been a much more interesting picture close up, ho hum) that he is using to capture the swarm - a giant brush and shovel. Yes. As you do. Seemed to work perfectly though.

After the swarm had been poured back in, we kept an eye on it for a while to see what the rest of the bees coming in would do. And here they are, on the left hive at the front, all following the scent in to the proper door. So this looks like a good capture. We'll check again the next day, to make sure all is well, but this one looks successful.

And on another host's property, another swarm. This one was huge when it first formed. Their neighbour came over and took most of it and put it in his empty hive. We're wondering whether the queen didn't get captured though, as there is still this little bunch left behind. If the queen is in there, then it is likely the rest of the family will fly on back and reform a bigger bunch. Another one to keep an eye on. Or the neighbour could come back and capture these as well. These bees did get thoroughly hammered with a big thunderstorm the night before this picture, although I'm not sure how that would affect them.