Getting ready to build 6 or 8 swarm traps. I'd like to see yours

I have only seen a swarm here once, and it was in motion, hadn't landed anywhere. I wasn't into bees then so didn't go after it. I have put bait hives out but caught nothing and had to remove them after the wax moths got into it.

Are you trying to catch swarms from your hives or just any in your area?

Any swarm any time.

Hah, I was jinxed! We were getting ready to go to our local Heritage festival Saturday to man the BeeKeepers Association booth when my husband heard a strange sound. He had just gone tot he back of the house to put some things in the crawl space and heard the noise, and looked down towards the pond hives were and saw what looked like a mini moving tornado!

He called me to get the swarm kit together and some veils while he watched where it landed; luckily it was near the ground, about a million bees in one long, fat line on a branch that was over 4 feet long! We cut the branch off in pieces and put them into a tote which we covered and carried over to where we had set up a new hive. Dumped the bees in, reduced the entrance to the 4" long slot and went on our way to the fair, crossing our fingers. It was after dark when we got back so we couldn't check the hive until Sunday morning and it was pretty busy with bees going out and, joy of joys, going back in with pollen!

I didn't open it but I checked the hives we thought it might have come out of and both were loaded with at least 20 frames of bees each, guess the population had gotten too big so the queen left. I didn't see any queen in the old one but I will check in another week to see if there are eggs, as she might have been very small if recently hatched.

So I started the year with 3 hives, bought 2 packages and 1 NUC, made 3 splits and with this swarm I now have 10 hives. Nothing like overkill, hahah! I have added another super to all of the new ones and am on my 2nd honey super on the 2 existing hives ( I run mediums so each now has 3 for the bees and 2 for me). I'm hoping to be able to pull off enough honey to sell some this year at the October fair.

With that many new hives I would skip harvesting this year and let him grow I wouldn't want to starve them during the winter

Hi Philip,

I was taught to never harvest from new hives and to me it makes a lot of sense. I run 3 mediums for them, but sometimes cut back to 2 right before it gets really cold and freeze their used brood frames so i can add them back when it gets warmer.

If they start pushing the limits the first year , I'll give them another box above a queen excluder but I always make sure they have at least 6 frames of honey and pollen above the brood..