Gathering a swarm of bees, in pictures

Glen Andresen is a man of his word. I had called him asking about swarm gathering a week or so ago, and he said he'd call me when he was going out so I could watch him do his thing. Sure enough, he called. There was a swarm biking distance from my house that he was going to gather, so I met him and took some pictures and notes.

Below are the pictures, but I'll give you the outline here (tired of wrestling blogger to interpolate text in pictures):

1. Picture of the swarm, not a huge one but a swarm nonetheless.
2. Glen, without smoke or a suit, knocking said swarm into a bucket.
3. Tapping the swarm into a hive box from the bucket. At this point we can assume he's gotten the queen into the hive box, so her pheromones will attract the rest of the bees.
4. One of Glen's nice tricks, he taps a few bees outside the entrance of the hive, so they can gather around, open up their little butt glands and fan pheromones into the air to alert the rest of the swarm that's still flying around where to go.
5. Another nice trick, he cuts the branch where they were swarming, because it's covered with queen smell and will continue to gather bees, and lets it sit near its old location for a while gathering up stragglers. Then he drops that second gathering into his box and removes the branch so the bees only have one source of queen smell, and that's coming from inside the hive box.
6. Here is the box, with a good amount of bees outside the entrance fanning. Glen leaves it til nightfall, then takes it to his bee field.

The patience he shows and little tricks he uses to make sure to get every last bee greatly increases "the take" of bees when he gathers a swarm, and decreases mortality once he takes the swarm box away. I assume many beekeepers would dump the bees, wait a few minutes, and close up the hive box and leave. This strands many bees (to their death) -- but doesn't require that second trip.

There you have it, gathering up free wild and healthy bees to bolster your own hive field a-la my bee mentor Glen. [Remember you can click pictures to get a bigger view]








Enjoy insect workers and their portability,

Bp