Swarms-4/1/24

[Jacobs]

I came home yesterday afternoon and saw a large number of bees on the front of one of my stronger hives. I suspected they attempted a swarm while I was away and that the queen did not go. It was too late to try and find her in the hive. This morning when I was locating a queen in another hive to mark her, the bees came out. I put swarm commander on the tulip poplar pole again and began tanging. The bees came to the tree. I estimate the swarm to be 5lbs. I vacuumed the bees and put them in a hive, but they were not behaving normally. I walked back to the poplar and saw the marked queen from the swarming hive on the ground. I got her in a queen catcher clip and put her in the hive and moved it closer to the tree. It took about an hour and some prodding, but the bees have largely left the tree and gone into the hive with the captured queen. So far, I like how my new method of catching swarms from my home hives is working.

Got a 1lb swarm a little after 7:00pm on Waverly Way. Saw a small queen the morning of 4/2. Most likely this is an afterswarm.