Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Spring morning swarm catching


 What better to do on a gorgeous spring day than to catch a low hanging swarm with your friends?


'Twas a smallish cluster, but neatly formed, that swarmed just after lunch yesterday.  They were just starting to swarm when I had to go back to work after lunch.  Found them last night, too late to do anything about it.


Three times we raised a bucket, hooked the branch with another pole and emptied the bucket full of bees into our nuc box.


We believe we caught the queen, and the bees seem to be moving right in.  You can see them raising their rear ends (picture below) to release the Nasonov pheromone to let the other bees know this is home.


Tonight the bees will go home with Dr. Becca to start a new life in her apiary.

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