# About to lose the biggest swarm I've seen-ideas?



## challenger (May 27, 2009)

I came home today to that dreaded sound. I looked up and a swarm was forming from one of my hives. It landed in a tall pine and is on a branch at least 40' up and there are no branches low enough for me to climb it. I have 6 bait hives around my house. I had four and added two more when I saw this swarm. 
I cannot think of any way to get them. I can make an extention pole but there would be no way to control it. I thought of a pressure washer to try to spray them off but they are too high for even that. I also thought of shooting the branch off the tree but I know the neighbors would have fits.
One of the bait hives has a very large number of scout bees inspecting it. I can see the swarm from this bait hive and they are flying back & forth between the bait hive & the swarm. The other bait hives have very little activity. As I said this is a huge swarm-I'd estimate the size would fill a deep hive body which is what I use for the bait hives I've got out. I think it is too late for them to decide on a hive for today.
If I see they are still there at dark I am thinking of making the bait hive larger and putting in a couple of empty queen cells I kept to show my wife's school class.
Any other ideas?
Please don't say, "next time give the queen more room to lay" or something similar.
I already know this.
Thanks
Howard


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Don't look up.


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## jrshay (Jul 9, 2012)

You might try tanging.


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

They will find a bait hive, be patient.
Post pics.


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## challenger (May 27, 2009)

They flew off. I know it's my own fault but sometimes I really get sick of the effort I put into beekeeping and the rewards I don't get. It's not a hobby for me as I give $ made to a charity. 
Not a good day in the beeyard


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

look on the bright side only healthy hives swarm, so you must be doing something right.


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## Jean-Yves (Oct 27, 2010)

Sorry Challenger( might want to change your name LOL)

I feel for you !
One for God!


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## Mrobisr (Mar 10, 2012)

If the swarm was really big keep watching they might throw after swarms. I'm not saying this to depress you, but to give you hope as you still may save a swarm from that hive and recover some of the loss.


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## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

challenger said:


> They flew off. I know it's my own fault but sometimes I really get sick of the effort I put into beekeeping and the rewards I don't get. It's not a hobby for me as I give $ made to a charity....


 It is not your fault. Bees have their own mind and decide differently than we are.  
With my bees - it is always a challenge. I decided one way and bees - another. They always won! But beeing a hobbyist - these challenges are very refreshing and helps with my normally extended self-esteem.  As for swarm - it seems to me, they occupy most undesirable places... they ignored my nice freshly painted accommodating nuc, and occupied the stack of old boxes I used to store damaged/bad comb/frames... in another occasion - they formed a gigantic ball over our heads in the garden and drifted away - to the horizon...


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

Huh.... I thought for sure they would find a bait hive a nice spot to take up residence.
Beekeeping sure does have it's challenges, but all in all it's a good hobby.


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## challenger (May 27, 2009)

Harley Craig said:


> look on the bright side only healthy hives swarm, so you must be doing something right.


I've heard this before but I have to disagree, respectfully of course. I would say that the bees are doing well mainly due to the beekeeper being vigilant in being on top of the health of the hive. As for the swarming and after swarming I've had this year that is on me. I thought I had done enough inspections to be somewhat confident the queens had room to lay but I obviously was totally inadequate in this, the most important honey season management, task.
I have gotten 1 small swarm in one of my bait hives and got another medium afterswarm last Saturday about 20' up a pine tree but all in all my home bee yard is a net loss from a numbers standpoint.
I've collected 5 other swarms from another bee yard I have and a few calls so,at best, I am even.
Next year I'll put what I've learned this year into my pre-season preparation and provide the queens that I feel are going to do well with more room than I have before and I'll inspect more carefully. This year it seems as if the hives are looking to swarm unless there are 16 frames of brood comb in the two deeps. Next year I will give her that many even if it means adding bees from splits so all the brood frames are covered.
Frustrating to know I just lost several pounds of honey with that swarm. I don't even want to think about the lost honey from the foraging of this number of bees OR where they went. If they found a new home in anything otber than another beekeepers yard they will be dead in 2-3 years max. I've yet to see a single hive in my area that didn't have varroa and all mine certainly do. If I didn't sacrifice last years honey by splitting & interrupting the brood cycle I'd have only my caught swarms as my bees.
Thanks for the encouragement.
Howard


Mrobisr said:


> If the swarm was really big keep watching they might throw after swarms. I'm not saying this to depress you, but to give you hope as you still may save a swarm from that hive and recover some of the loss.


I've already had a couple of after swarms & so far they have been barely worth the trouble. Small sizes and unmated queens. Sort of like a package without a queen. I really though swarm season was about over.
I still can't believe they didn't choose the one bait trap that had tons of bees in & on it. Even after they left these scout bees were all over this one box. In the past, when I've seen major scout activity, I'll get the swarm or I'll no longer see the scout bees.
Thanks
Howard


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## Daniel Y (Sep 12, 2011)

Howard, I share your frustration. fantastic hives in April are swarming then turning up queenless this past two weeks. I also attempted the extra room trick. I am thinking it does not work.
In the mean time I captured more swarms than I lost. If this weekends inspections still show colonies queenless I will be combining swarms with queenless colonies.
I consider the failure to prevent swarms more of a lack of equipment issue than anything. to limited in my options to prevent them. I woudl have preferred to split the hives as they formed queen cells but did not have the bottom boards inner and outer covers to do so. Adding space worked for a while but only for so long. once queen cells where formed I needed to split.
I had over wintered nucs swarm. Strong hives which is good, swarming is dong a lot of damage to them though.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

challenger said:


> They flew off. I know it's my own fault but sometimes I really get sick of the effort I put into beekeeping and the rewards I don't get. It's not a hobby for me as I give $ made to a charity.
> Not a good day in the beeyard


I decided long ago no one will ever fully understand bee-havior. I swear some hives simply have a death wish. Occassionally a hive does something that just flies in the face (pardon the pun) of everything I thought I knew about bees. You just have to say whatever and move on. I was in a yard recently where I had a stack of old culled comb with plenty of old pollen and all kinds of smells bees love sitting near a stack of new unused foundation. Guess which stack a swarm decided to settle in. Perfect. Every once in a while things work out......but don't count on it.


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## danno (Dec 17, 2007)

ya win some ya lose some
This is one of my swarms last year. They were only 7 ft off the ground. I spotted them at lunch. Could have been a breeze to shake then but I wanted the guy I'm mentoring to see how to shack one. I told him to be at my place at 5:00PM a short 4 hours away. Had the gear in the truck including camera and drove right up to them. Would have been a breeze to shake them then but I desided we needed pics first. I took a couple of him then passed the camera for my turn. At the snap of the camera the swarm started to hum. I new imediatly what was happening and scrambled to get the hood on. The hum turned to a dull roar. They started taking to the air. Before I could grab even a bucket out of the truck they were on the move. We walked with them heading NE to the edge of my farm. We then just watched them fly away


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## D Semple (Jun 18, 2010)

One trick I use for easier swarm catching is to save the landing branches from swarms I catch and put them 5' or 6' high in a convenient young tree or bush 20 or 30 yards Northeast of my hives. Once you get a favored landing location started, swarms will land in the same tree over and over again. 

Don


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## CaBees (Nov 9, 2011)

I spent two days cutting a swarm out of a blackberry bush about a month ago but the queen kept hiding in the fence and I could not get to her. Tried about everything even leaving a bait box with live brood next to her overnight hoping she would crawl in. Next day got them all in the box and the *[email protected] decided to fly....all of them JUMPED and flew out of the box, high overhead..over the trees, the houses....gone, gone, gone!

It happens and when you want to cry just laugh and chalk it off as one more new experience under your belt!

Hang in there...if you knew everything and could control everything then tell me, where would the fun be? To 'me', it is in the process of learning and those small success stories. The failures just bring the ego down a notch...something all of us could use once in a while!

Be sure to check for more swarm cells...it ani't over tile the fat queen sings and starts laying those eggs! good luck!


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## danno (Dec 17, 2007)

D Semple said:


> One trick I use for easier swarm catching is to save the landing branches from swarms I catch and put them 5' or 6' high in a convenient young tree or bush 20 or 30 yards Northeast of my hives. Once you get a favored landing location started, swarms will land in the same tree over and over again.
> 
> Don


exellent idea I will be using that this spring


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## Daniel Y (Sep 12, 2011)

I have seen 3 swarms on the same spot this year. I captured two of them. I had a second tree that I could have taken the branch from but didn't know swarms would do that then.


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## challenger (May 27, 2009)

I would think using branches that have previously had swarms land on them seems like a good idea. I am guessing this would apply mainly to swarms that contain mated queens though.
I've found that swarms (after swarms) with virgin queens barely pay attention to these queens once they are hived.
I suspect the QMP has much to do with this??


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