Swarm-3/24/22

[Jacobs]

I was outside this morning at 10:50 a.m. just in time to see the start of a swarm issuing from one of my hives. I got my swarm commander and sprayed a small amount on a convenient dogwood branch and on the front of a bait hive across my driveway pad from the swarming hive. The cloud of bees started to rise above the roof line of my house, so I got my tack hammer and a piece of metal and began tanging. After about 15-20 minutes of tanging, the bulk of the bees came to the front of the bait hive where I stood. Another decent clump wound up on a branch of the dogwood just above where I had sprayed. I vacuumed those bees and put them in the bait hive. The bees are staying for now, and I gave them a top feeder with about a half gallon of 1:1. If they do stay, I hope to continue to feed them this season and use the decent sized swarm as a comb builder. I think I will take Wally's advice about timing and wait to see eggs and larvae (but not capped brood) before giving the bees a shot of OAV for a varroa knock down.