Today's "swarm" 8/23/13

[Jacobs]

This afternoon about a hundred bees were flying over a dogwood tree near some of my hives. I put a few drops of lemongrass oil on a low branch to coax them down. They landed and I saw several in a circle facing a queen. I got her in a queen catcher clip and put them in a nuc box with 1 drawn medium frame. I'll release her tomorrow afternoon and consider boosting with a frame of capped brood from one of my hives. I'm curious to see if she will start laying. I have to try and clean comb from the plexiglass of the top super of my observation hive. If something bad happens to my observation hive queen, I may use this queen as a back up. Another little group of bees to play with.

[Wally]

Hope she lays like this for you.

[Jacobs]

I wish!

[Wally]

This was in one of the boy scout's hives when we inspected them today. It looks like they are preparing for winter quite well.

[Jacobs]

Like most of my mid-July or later swarms, this one fizzled out. For the most part, swarms in July remain "not worth a fly."