I've been around honeybees my whole life, my grandpa always had them and my uncle keeps about 35 hives out here on our land so we are always seeing swarms this time of year. I was with him this morning when he put a swarm in the box and thought I'd share pics. This was the 3rd swarm from this hive so it wasn't very big




They are amazing things to watch and learn about

Too cool !

That's cool to watch them all march in the box like that. You could of just laid the branch on the top bars and they will just go down. (not as cool though.)

Neat! So what makes the bees want to go into the hive instead of flying away?

When they swarm its their way of reproducing a hive. They are homeless,and looking for a home. So a box with comb that smells like bees is a good place to move into.

The swarm follows the queen. If she heads to the box they follow her in! It's a pheromone that she emits and the the bees sense.

Chris

Yea, when we shake them off you can watch for the Queen and as soon as she goes in they follow right behind her. They go where the Queen goes

Looks like hot work in that suit. I can't ever recall being stung while catching a swarm. Seems like they refuse to sting while they are swarming, unless you smash one.

Real nice! I have caught 2 swarms this year both came off my hives one stayed the other took back off.

This is the 17th swarmed we've boxed, lost 3 or 4 that landed high in a tree and took off within an hour or so, still have several hives that haven't swarmed the first time yet so they'll be more to come

My grandfather would work in them a lot without a suit, and he'd get stung so.e but didn't bother him any. Some swarms are real ducile and others are mean. This small swarm was mean today and 2 went up the legs and stung my uncle even with the suit on

The first swarm to leave ( primary swarm) will be the largest, as it should contain the old queen from the hive that they left from. When new virgin queens emerge some will fly off and additional bees from the hive will leave with the queens. Some of the later swarms ( secondary or after swarms ) will be small, sometimes the size of a baseball. After swarms tend to land higher than primary swarms, as virgin queens are much better flyers than old queens of the primary swarm.

As far as them entering the new hive, they are drawn in by the smell of any wax foundation it contains, along with the fact that it’s dark in there. My grandfather would tap on the back of the box with a screwdriver, ( called drumming) ....he said it would help attract the bees into the box. Nearly 50 years later, I’ve come to the conclusion that he was full of....., but I still do it occasionally as a tribute to him.

I still drum for the same reason, lol. A neighbor, Raymond Estes, taught me beekeeping. He was a third generation beekeeper and explained drumming to me while describing how to move bees from gums and boxes into frame hives. Never heard him say deep or brood box it was always a "gum".

Might be a southern thing warrior. Called gums here too, gums and supers

Never heard of gums. Must be a Southern thing. Lol

Dad would have us beat on pots or pans when we saw a swarm in flight, it was supposed to mimic the sound of thunder and would make the bees settle in a tree. Sometimes they would land, seems like most of the time they kept going though.

Yea, that was another of my grandfather’s tactics when swarm catching. I went along with the drumming, but never lowered myself to beating on pots and pans. He told me the racket would confuse the bees asto the location of the queen and make them land quicker. Never made much sense to me.

Beating on pots to get a swarm to settle has an ancient history, so ancient that the true origin has been lost to common knowledge. It goes back to the middle ages when a swarm was probably even more valuable than it is today. Any swarm seen was fair game to whoever spotted it but in order to lay claim you had to keep it in continual sight until they settled. To mark your claim and let others know your following a claimed swarm you must ring a bell or bang on a pot to alert others.

Went through mine today. I've got one that has filled a deep with honey, plus lots of backfilled deep frames throughout the yard. Another one is stacked three deep high for brood! Been a good year, next weekend is extraction time.
Another southern thing. Extractors were called slingers because they sling the honey out.

Our season here runs later than yours Warrior. Most hives have filled and capped a shallow, some have two filled. Locust trees are blooming now, clover will be coming on in early June. Normally, I take off 2-3 shallows per hive in mid July, extract, then super up for the fall flow at the end of August. Here in Pa, it’s not uncommon to fill 3 shallows with knotweed and goldenrod in September. I usually take off supers again around Sept. 21-24.