Swarm 7/21/21

[Jacobs]

Swarm_7 21 21_IMG_0548.jpg (54.88 KiB) Viewed 7020 times

These bees arrived about 1:45 pm yesterday. David called to alert me to their arrival. They were starting to concentrate above the dogwood at the back of my yard, and a small spray of Swarm Commander convinced them to land on a convenient branch. I think estimating this at 1lb would be generous. There is a queen with a white mark, but the mark does not look like one I have been making. I got the queen in a catcher clip so that when the swarm came out of the nuc I had hived them in and went back to the branch, they eventually returned to the nuc. Over night, they have consumed about a half pint of 1:1. I'll probably give them a frame of brood from one of my hives to try and anchor them and then release the queen this afternoon or tomorrow morning. This clearly is not a reproductive swarm. Whether this abscond will function as a colony or will perform as a "suicide swarm" should become clear after I release the queen.