# How many swarms this year so far?



## PA Pete (Feb 2, 2005)

Free Hanging: 0
Swarm Traps: 0

One call so far was a month ago and turned out to be a dead-out in a wall cavity


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## honeyman46408 (Feb 14, 2003)

I got 4 calls last Monday 2 were gone by the time I got there, swarms are very small.

1 call Wed. got there before the swarm, that was a new experance!!

1 call Sat. about 1# of bees.

SOOOOOO LOOKING FOR THE BIG ONE!!!!


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## Henry (Sep 17, 2004)

6 so far.
2 from traps and 4 hanging.Well, 3 hanging and 1 on a fence post.I am still hearing of swarms moving but I think it is about over. I gave one away to get a older beek to get back into bees. Henry

[ May 29, 2006, 06:14 AM: Message edited by: Henry ]


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## tecumseh (Apr 26, 2005)

true swarms this year total=1

very small and pathetic little hive started on the underside of tree limbs=2

wall extraction=3

of these 6, 3 have proven to be hybradized african /european and 3 pure european


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## Mike Gillmore (Feb 25, 2006)

8 - Free Hanging
0 - Swarm Traps ( Don't have any out )

1 swarm was from my own hive and the other 7 were outside calls. Two of them were kind of small, possibly afterswarms... 2 - 2 1/2 lbs each... so I combined them into one. 
Swarm calls are still coming in, and probably will continue for the next few weeks. 
Nobody in this area has seen anything like this before... guess it was the mild winter.


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## Tia (Nov 19, 2003)

This has been a very quiet year here. I'm the one the extension office calls if they get a call about swarms and I've retrieved only one! I think what with all the mosquito spraying in these parts there are very few feral colonies left. And beekeepers are so few and far between. Besides, they're probably retrieving their own swarms. 

I don't want to jinx myself but my seven hives are booming and I've had no swarms. I believe it's thanks to checkerboarding.


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## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

Freehanging=2. Both outside calls. Just startin here though, so I expect a few more.


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## Brandy (Dec 3, 2005)

7 Freehanging, 1 Extraction from a Mini Bar & 1 from Swarm Trap. Still need to check 2 traps with scouts fighting over it. 2 nice size, the other's medium.


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## iddee (Jun 21, 2005)

I have no idea. With swarms, trapouts, extractions, and swarm prevention splits, somewhere over 30.
4 traps set now and three extractions possible if the people want to spend the money. Have had 1 to 3 calls every day for the last week, maybe longer.

Tia, I get many more calls referred by exterminators than any other source. You may want to call a few.

[ May 29, 2006, 08:45 AM: Message edited by: iddee ]


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## Beekeeper Bill (Jul 22, 2005)

5 hanging = 2 were large , 3 were rather small
0 traps (none out)


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## Lew Best (Jan 8, 2005)

Our "normal" swarm season starts around mid April but (as confirmed by bee club members) there were none until bout 10 days ago. I've gotten 4 so far; one more got away before I got there. All hanging from tree limbs except one hanging from the eave of a chicken house roof.

Lew (right in the middle or Texas)

[ May 29, 2006, 12:19 PM: Message edited by: Lew Best ]


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Two free hanging, 1 of my own and one outside call. I had to pass on a third while on travel last week. I'd guess our main swarm season is about over.


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## iddee (Jun 21, 2005)

Think again, Astro, I've known of 7 here since wed.


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## RAlex (Aug 18, 2001)

1 free hanging >about 3# of bees prolly a secondary swarm
no traps out
1 cut-out from a bee club member referral
I think its just starting here about two weeks later than usual....Rick


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

iddee,

I may well be wrong, on the swarming, but I know I'm right on the flow status. Lots of bees just hanging out and the OB hive has slowed nectar storage. Seems like a swarm now would have a tough go, true? What could be causing all the "late" swarms? Perhaps you have much different nectar sources than we do right along the coast? Interested to hear your thoughts.


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## Redneck (Oct 2, 2005)

A friend of mine has put 36 swarms in my equipment and 5 in his hives. I have put 17 swarms in from my bees, and I do not know how many left before I got to them. I have bees in several yards and it is hard to keep up with their swarming. Here in Giles County the Poplars, blackberries, and wild roses are blooming. I usually wait until about the third week of June to extract after these sources stop blooming. Then I put the supers back on for sourwood and clover. The bees have swarmed more this year than normal, but we didn't lose very many last winter. I had a swarm today, so they are not through as of yet.


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## Pugs (Jul 15, 2004)

Today was my third swarm hived. All three were hanging, well one had fallen to the ground by the time I got there.

I'm doing better at getting them this year. Take my time, watch the bees to see if I got the queen. Don't use copier paper boxes like I did today. The bees can get out. I'm glad they were in the back of the truck and not in my hatchback.

I think club members have managed to hive close to 20 so far, and we are not done yet, we just came out of a week of nasty weather and they are starting to swarm again.

Pugs


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

Nineteen cut-outs
One owl house
One squirrl house
Eight bee trees
Four trap-outs
Thirty-nine swarms
Three bait hives
And a slew or wasps, carpenter bees, mason bees, and mud daubers. 
No hornets yet.

You should see my backyard!


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## Mitch (Jul 7, 2003)

Oh my Bill and a was kinda bumed reading this post thst i have not caught any in my swarm traps.Thanks for making me feel better my backyard is not near big as yours lol.

I have 1 1/2 hangin Big 0 in 5 swarm traps.The half is a very small after swarm.


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## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

Add one more hanging, out of area swarm. Kinda small, but I'll take it.


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## MountainCamp (Apr 12, 2002)

Free Hanging: 0
Swarm Traps: 0

No call so far.


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## kbee (Mar 6, 2005)

Free hanging: 0, swarm traps: 1(on Sunday) Have 11 traps out Caught 3 last year with 5 traps.


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## Tom Miller (Aug 10, 2005)

Free Hanging 18
Swarm Traps 0

Of the 18 swarms hived all but 1 was from my hives. I had one swarm that absconded a couple of days after I hived it and I missed 2 swarms that Iknow of.


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## carbide (Nov 21, 2004)

Free hanging; 3
Swarm traps: 0
Cut outs; 2

Turned down 1 cut out, the owner wasn't willing to pay to have them removed. Turned down 1 swarm, it was over 40 feet high on the chimney of a house. Fortunately no swarms from my own hives yet.


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## The Honey House (May 10, 2000)

1 call for a swarm that moved in behind a chimney.
Owner sprayed, I refused paid assist to clean up.

[ June 01, 2006, 08:57 AM: Message edited by: The Honey House ]


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

The prime swarm call questions:

1) Did you spray them.

2) How big is the cluster (adjust down to 1/4 what they say and hope it's actually that big).

3) How high is it (adjust their answer to twice that high)

4) How long have they been there (the answer is often ten years or two years or they just got there)

Quite often they say there is this large cluster but it turns out to be a bee beard and an established colony that they sprayed with raid already.  

Or it's a handful of bees 60 feet up a tree.


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## iddee (Jun 21, 2005)

AWW, MB, you're such an optimist.








You ask for address only and drive there. 
It don't get you many bees, but it helps my stock in the oil companies.


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## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

Add an extraction to the list. Decieded to trap them out, as they just swarmed in yesterday. Set up today and check on it tomorrow.


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## Pugs (Jul 15, 2004)

Two (out of three) of the swarms calls I got so far someone saw the swarm arrive. In one case it was a neighbor, the homeowner was out at the time, and the other case the swarm flew over the granddaughter (8 or 9) playing on the front lawn and landed a foot off the ground in a rhody bush.

I hope to see this one day. It must be quite a sight.

Pugs


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## Flewster (Nov 3, 2003)

We have caught two more now in traps bringing the total to 8 in traps.........Lots of fun to go check them and find them loaded with FREE bees...


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## Ross (Apr 30, 2003)

I have two extractions pending. One is in a house that has been there at least 3 years. It won't be fun with tear out required. The other is underneath a mobile home with exposed comb. They apparently threw off one swarm earlier in the year. Comb area is supposed to be 2'x4'. I picked up one pretty good swarm that then absconded. I picked up another softball swarm that didn't have a queen that I could find. I had seven calls one day in April, but I was out of the country that week.


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## livetrappingbymatt (Jan 13, 2006)

6 swarm calls,left before i could get to them.
2 hangers nice ones even got a free hive body with one swarm.
several cut out calls but the weather has been kind of if'y to start?
yesterday got a call on one in a cement block bld. it may swarm as it had a fair sized "beard" on the wall,set swarm trap,here's hoping?
must be were in the season around here?
animal calls on the raise this last week too?
bob


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## Flewster (Nov 3, 2003)

Had another today and also a cutout from a porch........


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## Laurence Hope (Aug 24, 2005)

This was my first year with swarms. I understand we (in central California) had a very busy swarm season- now pretty much over. I caught 11 free hanging swarms, 1 additional flew into my storage area and occupied a 5 frame nuc. I also got a call from a tree remover who cut into a hive. He left a 3' x 18" section of log on the ground for me. The bees left before I could get there, but landed on the next door neighbors bush. I got the bees, and took the log, which after being cleand out, is making a nice planter for my wife. It forks at the top with both branches, each about 12' wide, hollow.
That colony absconded from the hive I put them in. Luckily, I saw it happening, and put a trap with lure out, and caught it again in 5 minutes.
It now resides in a 5 frame nuc. Swarm season is over - I have some free time again.


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## Hill's Hivery (Jan 7, 2005)

Free Hanging: 3
Swarm Traps: 0 (Don't have any set out.)
Cut Outs: 0
(Been giving them to another beek in the area.)

All in All I have had 10 swarm calls within the last 2 weeks, but all of my nucs and hives are full so the remainder of them have gone to other beeks in the area. Pest Control companies call me and I farm out the calls to the beeks if I can't use them. Works out well for me, just wish I had more nucs to fill!


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## Tia (Nov 19, 2003)

Believe it or not, I think I got two this morning! I guess I haven't kept current with my checkerboarding! The reason I say I "think" I got two swarms is because suddenly both my swarm traps are alive with activity. You'll recall I put hive setups--drawn comb and all--at the two sites where my swarms usually land. Well, it looks like someone's moved into both! Had to have happened this morning because they were both quiet yesterday. We had a good rain last night--the first in a long time--and when I went out at about 11 this morning, the front of both boxes had 10 to 15 bees flying in a leisurely fashion, back and forth in front of the boxes, like they were orienting.
This is the latest I've ever caught a swarm. . .mid-April until mid-May has been the norm. But we seem to be two weeks behind on everything, so I guess swarming activity is, too.


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## Brent Bean (Jun 30, 2005)

One free hanging
Zero in bait boxes ( I have six out)
This year seems to be a slower swarming year, so far compared to last year. The one swarm I did catch was a big one, it filled a five gallon pail ¾ full.


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## John Gesner (Dec 17, 2005)

Don't have any traps.

I've had 13 calls to date. Three in one day once.

All free hanging.

Hived four.

Missed four (caller had called 4 or 5 beeks and didn't want to wait for me)

Had one fly off after I hived it.

Gave one to a beginner who assisted me

Let a senior beekeeper have one who I assisted.

Turned down two.

Have a cut-out appointment today after my day-job.

It's been quite the year here in Central Ohio. I've been on the swarm call list for four years, and previous to this the most I've had all season was seven. And three of those were for yellow jackets in the fall!


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## notaclue (Jun 30, 2005)

Even though I'm listed for a small area around me (no more than 15 miles) I get calls for all parts of the state. Problem is when I get the nearby calls have all been during family emergencies. I have two hives in houses to look at. One has been sprayed repeatedly and heavily I will more than likely tell em to clean it out and plug it. The other is a nine year old mellow hive 8 miles from here. I'll get that today or tomorrow.

Oh yeah, I count 15 swarms, none of which stayed more than three hours from time of call.

[ June 05, 2006, 12:13 PM: Message edited by: notaclue ]


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## MountainCamp (Apr 12, 2002)

Hived the first swarm of the season from a cedar tree by one of my yards.
Watched the queen fly from the jar I was using to the hive. She was almost pure black.
A liitle while later checking a hive's supers, had another queen land on a top bar for a moment, and then fly off. I have a few hives in this yard that should have virgin queen taking mating flights.


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## chief (Apr 19, 2005)

3 free hanging. Two of which were from my own hives. Got two other calls that I couldn't do because of work and vacation. The one I did do was for a 90 year old lady in her cactus garden. After I was done she asked me if I was scared of bees because I was jumping around and shaking my hands. What she didn't realize is that the bees were fine but I was getting worked over by her cactus! I still have some cactus spines in my fingers I think.

0 trapped. I have no traps out this year.


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## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

2 just yesterday! And it's about time! A friend of mine's 2 hives both swarmed and he didn't want them. He called me and I headed over. Both were hanging in a small apple tree next to his house. Collecting them was too easy.

George-


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## Mitch (Jul 7, 2003)

Got 3 total now hangin im my fruit trees.Still nothing in my swarm traps.

Any one know anything about shelf life of LGO?I think the stuff i get may have sat in the store for a long time.


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## Bob Bee (May 2, 2006)

All 4 were hanging, lost the fifth one as I was setting up the ladder. I havn't use swarm traps before but I'll be set up for next year with some.

Bobby


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Any one know anything about shelf life of LGO?I think the stuff i get may have sat in the store for a long time.

If it's in a sealed bottle, it should keep forever.


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