This is our third swarm capture. I was inspecting hives and as I was leaving a hive I noticed a large swarm coming across my sisters horse pasture. i was able to lure them into a hive and they will be relocated to the bee yard with the other hives.
I had initially taken the painted box with some swarm lure in it and the swarm decided they wanted to take over the box and the side by side. The queen did not approve and landed in a nearby pear tree. I got a larger hive and managed to drop the swarm and queen into the larger hive. I then just had to wait until everyone went inside to close it up. March 2024
This was our second swarm capture. They actually captured themselves in an empty hive that was in a stack under my shed. All I had to do was get them isolated into one box and prepare them to be moved to the bee yard. March 2024
This was our very first swarm. I was called to a house in Mullins to capture a swarm that was hanging on a pine limb. They have been successfully relocated to the bee yard and the queen is already laying eggs. March 2024
This swarm occurred from one of our very own boxes, mere feet from where I was doing routine hive inspections. This was the most obstinate colony, i captured the queen four times over a period of three days. On the fourth capture the queen finally decided to stay in the hive I offered. On the fourth day they finally came to rest 20 yards from the original hive. The initial capture is pictured below, I drove our side by side into the swarm with a baited hive in the bed and the bees moved right in, then left.
This swarm occurred from one of our very own boxes and they came to rest in a nearby rose bush. This capture was the easiest so far. I snipped the branch the queen was on and placed them in the top of a hive, everyone moved in with ease. They are currently located 20 feet from the original hive.