# Collecting swarms.



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

When you get your name on a swarm collecting list you will recieve some real bazar calls. 
I got one last year from a person that said they had bees in their wall and they were ready for me to come remove them. They really got upset when I told them the bees were not a swarm and I didn't remove bees from homes. Well the USDA gave us your name you remove swarms the person said so you should come get them. Any way they just couldn't under stand what a swarm was. 
You will get such calls too. I have the name of a guy who removes bees from such places so I refure them to him. I am sure last year if all the calls were really bees he could have quit his day job and done very well just doing removals.

With fuel cost what they are today as well as the past I have a list of questions as I need to know what to take to collect the bees.

*How high are they?* 
I can go up 24 feet on a extention ladder and extend my vac hose close to another 24 feet.


















*What does the cluster look like?* A ball of bees on a branch is simpler to collect than one wrapped around the branches and trunk or on two sides of a fence.























































*Another question is how long have they been there?* They can fly off at any time but the longer they have been some place the more appt they are to fly off while your going to get them.
It is a good Idea to give the person who called your cell phone number so they can call if the bees fly off while your on the road.

 Al


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I got my first taste of swarm collecting my second year with a fellow club member.
The two packages I had bought were sick and had to be destroyed. Decided I could not afford bees at the rate this was costing. Word got out at the club I'd had bad luck and needed some help to stay with bees.
first the fellow a half mile down the road calls and said he had a swarm he would give me if I had the equpment. I didn't have any so he kept them till I had bought more. Then another guy said he had gotten a bunch of swarms and if I helped I could have some more from him. I ended up with 5 collected swarms that fall.

Some equpment I use in collecting is a folding work bench. which works well for some low swarms.



















A chain saw to bring high swarms down to easy reach.


















Loppers and pruneing clipers.




















 Al


----------



## SmokeEater2 (Jan 11, 2010)

Great pictures! I'm hoping I get called for a couple of swarms that I can get to this year. I've got a couple of lonely hives just waiting for a colony. :whistlin:


----------



## Kmac15 (May 19, 2007)

DH is president of our local club, we have gotten 3 calls already...trouble is they come in while he is at work and nobody...I mean NOBODY will go get them. (I have called our whole swarm list twice so far)


----------



## CarolT (Mar 12, 2009)

I went to get a swarm for a friend of a relative, who wanted them gone immediately. Then her husband decided they needed to wait for an "expert" he'd been talking to at the same time as I was talking to the wife _after_ I got there and got my stuff out, etc. Wasted my gas and time because the "expert" wanted the swarm so bad he convinced them I wouldn't get all the bees and they'd have problems from them. Been hoping for a chance at a swarm for forever... 3 days later, a swarm shows up in _our_ yard!! We got our bees!! Woohoo. What are the odds?


----------



## BjornBee (Jan 17, 2011)

If at the end of the day, the swarm is still there, I usually go out right before dark and hive them. That way I can take all the bees with me on one trip.

If they want me to stop what I am doing, and respond immediately, there is a fee involved as I am giving up a partial days labor.

I have gotten calls from real estate agents who were getting ready to have an open house with a swarm on the patio, to getting a call to remove a swarm from a cemetery that was getting ready to have their Memorial Day parade end and their ceremony to begin right where the bees had settled.

Many great stories over the years.

I do NOT respond well to calls that make demands, think I should do it for free, or think it is my duty as a beekeeper to spend days trying to get bees out of a wall for the sake of saving some bees.

OH....and I can't even count how many have called me to "Save the bees" after the homeowner had previously failed to kill them off with a can of raid.


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

A 5 gallon pail with the lid fastened to it with a short section of rope so you can close it quick.

I have small holes drilled inthe bottom and in the lid for ventalation.




























I have what I call catch hives. They are just hives fastened to the screen bottom board with some one bys. I try not to have a swarm in them to long as it is handy to just grab them and go. I usally have them full of frames too.

 Al


----------



## mare (Aug 31, 2006)

a guy at work just showed me a pic of a swarm on his cell phone. he said his neighbor called a guy to come and get them--my co worker was ticked and wouldnt let t
he guy take them cuz he wouldnt pay him $50.00 bucks for the swarm.
love all the pics Al, thanks for posting them.


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I am not going to pay any thing for a swarm either. You don't know what your getting with a swarm they could be carrying some type of dease you never know.

We place our caught swarms in a seperate yard from any of our regular colony till we can be sure they don't have some thing. They usally stay there for a year.

 Al


----------



## mare (Aug 31, 2006)

i told him he more than likely wouldnt get anything for a swarm, i kinda figured for the reasons you said but i didnt tell him cuz he was just seeing dollar signs


----------

