Catching a Swarm… Easy Come, Easy Go!

About 2 weeks ago, we had an exciting experience with our bees that then turned into disappointment. Charlie & Ben were on our back deck preparing bee boxes to put in the fields to catch swarms when they looked down in the brush. There, hanging off a bush, was a huge swarm of bees.

You see, when bee hives get congested, the colony will split and divide… half staying in the old hive, and the rest setting off to find a new place to call home…this group of bees are called a swarm. The guys couldn’t believe it. I heard them rushing around but didn’t know what was going on. Since Charlie was still recovering from shoulder surgery, he needed more help to secure the bees. He put a call into a friend and within a half an hour he was there in his bee suit. Charlie did not have an empty hive at the time to put the bees in so he improvised… they used a paper box.

Fortunately this swarm was setting in a bush at ground level. Swarms are most often found about 10 to 15 feet up in a tree. The kids and I were amazed as we watched Charlie & his friend basically shake the bees into the box. They put on the lid that had a small hole cut in it for the straggling bees to enter. The bees went easily into the hole which was a good sign that the queen was already in the box.

Well, they secured the swarm but now we needed to find a real hive for them. Charlie & I rode to Hagerstown the next day to purchase a new hive. Before we could put the bees in the new home, the hive box needed to be assembled and painted. We did this as fast as we could and two days after catching the swarm, Charlie was ready to put the bees into the new hive.

He suited up, opened the paper box and basically poured them into the new hive. These were busy bees… they had already begun to make wild comb in the paper box. To make them feel more at home, Charlie took the comb and hung it in the new hive box. The bees seemed to settle in right at home.

You can imagine how disappointed we were when the next day the bees were gone. Charlie had added sugar water to the hive to give them quick nourishment which is a common thing to do to help a new colony settle. But the water may have been too cold and made the bees decide to search for a new home. Another theory as to why the bees left is paint fumes. The paint on the new box was dry but may have still carried an odor that they did not like. Well, whatever the reason, it was a good experience for the next swarm and we now have the equipment ready and waiting.