Caught 'em! Sort of...

Myrina's Swarm stayed perched in the tree for 2 days.  Both days the cluster grew smaller.  Yesterday morning I noticed a pile of bees on the ground in front of Myrina's hive.  I laid two undrawn frames down on the pile (it's all i have left!).  The bees climbed up on the frames and I put all of them into the Swarm trap I had set out.  By lunch the trap was empty and the bees were back in the 'pile'.  Then I put the 'Quiet box' over the pile with what few frames I have & a cover.  When I got home from work all the bees were in the box.  I put the bee covered frames in my last box, a 10 frame deep, and up on the stand with a reduced entrance.  I use the Quiet box for inspections so i needed it back.

Today I looked through the 3 frames of bees.  There is a queen but the bees don't act right.  First, why were they on the ground and not in a tree?  Second, The bees don't do anything.  They stand around like they're loitering, no activity?  I didn't know bees were capable of doing nothing.  They're like teenagers on a Saturday morning, just sitting there!

I posted a question about this on the Forum.  Word there is to add a frame of brood to jump start them or feed them some syrup.  Either way I'll keep you posted.

P.S. - I don't know for sure if these bees are from Myrina's swarm in the tree.  It could be that another queen made it out with some bees of her own.  The shrinking swarm in the tree was gone by the time I out the box on the pile of bees. 

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The Trap is Set

This too has been some what complicated. A swarm catch is a great way to get free bees. Better yet it's more like rescuing bees from the wild. The issue is that my physical property is smaller than what the bees perceive as their Yard. So I can't really get the swarm trap out side of the bee yard. Apparently within the Yard the pheromone of the existing hives masks the pheromone in the trap. So I need to find a off site location to place the trap.

Fortunately where I work is 10 miles away. Not to far. I can check it while at work during the week. On the weekends I pass the location going to the grocery.

Once in place I'll leave it till the beginning of July. I managed to place two drawn out but empty deep frames inside. I Have another frame filled with honey in storage. I'll put it in the Nuc if ever it gets a swarm. The other frames have not been drawn out, but they're all I have this year.

Behind the garage at work