Caught the second swarm of the season. It probably weighed 5 lbs. That’s allot of bees.

The first was much smaller and is still hanging in there but may not make it. This one on the other hand is very strong and had already added to the comb I provided and started making honey. The comb will need to be trimmed because it didn’t quite fit into the hive and folded over at the bottom corners.

No pictures unfortunately as it was getting dark and I was in a hurry.

I caught another swarm in the swarm trap. The word trap is used loosely because the bees can come and go as they please. Really it is just a box made out of scrap wood big enough to hold the bars from my Top Bar Hives. I use a couple of bars with clean comb when I have it. I always bait the trap with some lemon grass oil. Just get both ends of a Q-tip wet with the oil and place it in a sandwich bag or small Ziploc bag leaving it about half way opened and hang it in the back of the box. I also paint the opening with the Q-tip before I put it in the bag to add a little more attractant. In this picture you can see the bars and the corner of the bag. There is a block of wood covering the entrance. The entrance is just 4, ½ inch holes drilled close together. I chose to do this rather than just cut a 1 inch hole because the + created by the individual holes keeps small birds, and other critters from making themselves at home inside.

Place another scrap of wood on top to keep the rain out.

Then hang it in a tree where you have seen or suspect bees to travel, and wait. And wait.

If you are lucky a swarm looking for a new home will like what you have set up for them and move in. Once you see a large number of bees coming and going from the hive take it down and move them to your hive. I took this hive down too early when I saw bees and it was empty. I put it right back up. I think I was just seeing scout bees checking out the possible new home. A few days later the swarm moved in.

I lost a hive through my own lack of attention just before spring so I had a hive full of comb. I opened up a large section to dump any loose bees from the box into the hive.

I also removed a couple of bars from the front to move the bees and comb from the trap into the hive.

This is where having a couple of bars of comb comes in handy. Remove a couple of empty bars in the trap so you can lift out the bars with comb and bees.

This is 2 bars of bees and comb and 1 empty bar that the bees had already stuck together. I just moved all 3 because it was easier and less disturbing to the bees than separating them. I just had to remove one more bar from the front of the hive to make more room. You can see the bees chained together making new comb on the front bar. It is the empty one what you are seeing is about 1 ½ inch of bees hanging down.

This is what was left in the trap. If I wouldn’t have had the comb for them to start on almost all of the bees would have been loose in the trap and need to be dumped/swept out into the hive.

Get as many of the bees into the hive as you can and then close it up.  I left the trap on top of the hive so the few that were left would find their way in.