# Afterswarm on the ground. now what?



## raymilosh (Jan 12, 2005)

Hi all,
I have kept bees on and off for 15 years. Currently I have one hive. It swarmed last week and I hived the swearm. Now I have 2 hives. 
Yesterday, i found a small swarm on a wooden stake in the ground near the 2 hives. Maybe 1 or 2 lbs worth. the swarm is half on the stake and half in the grass. a neighbor said she saw extra bee activity yesterday near the 2 hives that are now sitting side by side, so I am assuming the swarm came from my hive(s). The new hive is still occupied. 

Is it likely that yesterday's swarm is an afterswarm from the hive that swarmed last week and that they have no queen? Do I just put this swarm back in the colony? Do i need to do anything special for them, like spray them with sugar water before reintroducing them?

Second question is how do you get a swarm that is half in the grass? I set up a super over the stake last night and about a third of them went up in it overnight, but the rest were still on the stake and in the grass this AM. IF I get home tonight and they're not all in the super, I don't have any ideas of how to gather them up. I have no vacuum and, in my experience, the bee brush isn't very effective at moving a lot of bees, but it sure does make 'em mad. 
If you have any ideas, please write or gimme a call.

thanks
ray
blue heron farm
pittsboro nc
919 444-9416


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I got to do some thing with all my pictures< probably make a folder for every little detail. any way for a swarm on the ground set the hive as colse to it asy our can with out it setting right on them. get down on the ground and look for the queen. If you find her move her into the hive. She is probably a virgin queen at this point any way.

they should move into the4 hive reguardless if she has mated any way.

 Al


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## Michael W. Smith (Jun 2, 2002)

I think alleyyooper has it right. This second swarm is an afterswarm from the first hive and has a virgin queen with it. 

I see two options to hive this swarm.

Option 1. Set a hive as near as possible to the bees with a "ramp" to the bottom board. If they won't go up willingly, get the smoker out and blow smoke on them so they head to the hive. 

Option 2. Set a hive with foundation and lid (and no bottom board) over top of the bees in the grass. I would think overnight they would "move up" into the hive.

Either way, once you have this swarm hived, you might want to get some brood frames from the first hive - shake all the bees off - and add them to this small swarm. With a virgin queen, it take a while for her to start laying, and with a smaller swarm, they need some help in building in size - which you can do with adding brood frames until they get established and the virgin queen is laying.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Lady called me late one stormy evening and said she had this swarm on the ground in her back yard. She said she had spent most of the day trying to find some one local to her to get it. Since she was about a hour and a half away I told her I would call her in the morning to see if they were still there. Several thunder storms went thru the area during the night but she reported in the morning they were still there and they were about as big as a nice serving platter.
I told her to call me if they left and I was on my way.

When I got there sure enough they were as she said.

I sat the hive down near them used the bee brush to give then a little push to the entrance.










I always carry a queen catching tool which helps get queens into a queen cage. Any way I got it out of the truck then went back to the swarm and started looking for the queen. I found her and got her into the catch tool to release inside the hive.
While I was waiting for them to march into the hive the lady showed me her beautiful front yard.



















An hour latter they were nearly all in the hive.











I got another set of pictures around here where the swarm was half on the ground and half in a hanging willow tree. Just got to find it.


 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Here is the other picture I was looking for.
This swarm was about 0nje third in a willow tree and two thirds on the ground. First I shook the ones out of the tree into the hive. then set the hive up for the rest to walk into. Took about an hour and a half.










 Al


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## raymilosh (Jan 12, 2005)

Thank you for the information. I knew about how to hive the swarm for when I returned on Friday night. Unfortunately, the swarm departed before I arrived. I'll remember what to do if it happens again. 

ray


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