HELP ! How do I catch my girl friends who have swarmed?

[Kiwi Will]

Its early summer, warm weather and bees are in full flight & bring home lotsa stuff to make honey.
Problem I have is that the hive is in the middle of swarming! I went outside and banged a steel oven-pan with a serving spoon and made a big din ( I understand it's supposed to make them think its a comin' storm's thunder).
Well they landed in a tree at the other side of the section (I live in town) where its too damb high to reach them.
I collected a swarm 20 yrs ago when I just dropped them into a cities curb side rubbish bag, them gave them to an bee keeper down the road. That ws easy but this is a different and more of a problem.

Anyway, I have made up 1 prospective new hive with a half a frame of capped honey and 4 frames with foundation wax attached,
and another in a different location down wind with the same internal set up of a half filled frame and 3 others with wax. Both boxes are certainly busy with bee traffic.
Of course I want the queen to come have a nosy but am I pipe-dreaming or is it possible that the scouts who now have found both boxes and are feasting up big time are just won't bother dragging the ol' girl down.

How does she move about to a new place?
Does the new home get found by the drones, workers or the Queen?

How long will they tend to stay in the exposed sight before moving on to some other more weather friendly site?

I lifted the lid on the 4 tier hive and there seems to be still lots of going ons' but I haven't opened it up to check if new Queen cells had been developed. A couple of weeks ago, the I took the whole hive apart and saw nothing that alerted me to the possible breakup. I did notice that the extruder was really difficult for the workers to get through so I change it for a plastic extruder which had an ever-so slightly wider gap. I am wondering if the congestion caused the vacation of about half the population.

This is my 10th MONTH ! of bee keeping and I have to say, I feel rather regected

Hoping for some ideas to help get "the ol' bat" to come down and take up residence in her new home.

[Maine_Beekeeper]

Bait your hive location with lemongrass oil. It is the equivalent of "ballot box stuffing"
a few drops near the entrance will do a lot.
A frame of drawn comb will also help if you have one.

It is the workers that find and communicate back the new location to the cluster.

read this book sometime when you have a chance:
http://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Hive-So.../dp/0674953762

Best wishes,
-Erin

[CentralPAguy]

Originally Posted by Kiwi Will

Hoping for some ideas to help get "the ol' bat" to come down and take up residence in her new home.

Now why would any female be interested in your digs, once you called her an ol' bat. How do you know that she herself or her minions aren't reading your post. I would apologize to her most profusely and humble yourself and beg her to forgive your insensitivity. Afterall, you must not have been a good landlord or she wouldn't have left you to find a better place for her tribe. lol

[Kiwi Will]

Well, I got VERY persuasive with my BIG extension ladder, 'ittle light brush and sweet talk to the blighters that tried to do me harm. I had a 'ell of a job up the long extension ladder with my dear sweet obliging wee wife at the bottom to steady it, and having a BIG STICK with a cloth rapped around its end. That there stick was used to prod the main lump of almost fluid swarm off its perch & the brush was used to sweep the ones I could reach, into the air. They fell like a lump of snow and sounds of hail as they landed in the cardboard box after some 2 feet of free fall.
I don't know if I got the queen as there was no way of telling where she was. I guess if they are still in the hive tomorrow night, she must have been one of them & got persuaded that I wanted her back & that Im not such a bad guy after all.

[tecumseh]

scouts (workers) go looking for the new place.

have you possible ever considered a bit more direct approach to being able to retrieve you own swarms... like possible clipping the queens wing (singular). perhaps that is too direct... not enough waving of wands and banging on old pots?