# Swarm calls....that time of year



## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

Second swarm call in a week. Same location, in fact this swarm settled within 20 feet of the one last week. Neither one was very large so I'm hoping they are just afterswarms and not Africanized. I love this time of year.......Anyone else boxing the free bees?


----------



## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

Update: convinced myself the small swarm contained a virgin queen and pulled the queen "includer" to avoid interfering with her mating flight(s) tooooo soon. Guess they didn't like that box of old comb and took off yesterday. Oh well, better for them to take off than fall victim to a can of wasp spray.


----------



## blue gecko (Jun 14, 2006)

Two swarm calls since yesterday afternoon. One was too late and the other has taken up residence in someones attic (yesterday morning). Its raining right now and chilly so as soon as the weather clears up we'll set up a trap.


----------



## blue gecko (Jun 14, 2006)

Storm Chasers has nothing on Bee Charmers!


----------



## BlueRose (Mar 7, 2013)

how close to Moody MO are you?


----------



## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

I am in the very Southeastern corner of OK. About 30mi from AR and 15 from TX.

Worked my dad's bees over the weekend. Hour away so I don't get there much and he's 73. Weather/life had prevented us from checking on them and we missed their swarm. Good news is we found three capped swarm cells so we were able to go ahead and make splits using those frames. One of the cells was in a medium super so I stuck it and a frame of honey/nectar into a two frame mating nuc, shook out another frame of bees into it and brought it home. I really want to keep this line going as they are the hardiest and most docile bees I've ever known. A feral hog knocked over the hive in NOV and dad told me all the bees were dead. THREE weeks later I went down for a deer hunt in early DEC and the hive bodies were laying on their side with about a three in gap between the boxes but the "dead" bees were fine. They had built burr comb to bridge the gap between the boxes. I was able to get them uprighted, scraped all the burr comb and put everything back together with no smoke/veil etc... Definitely a keeper blood line.


----------



## BlueRose (Mar 7, 2013)

Wish we where closer. I would like to have a mentor and a calm set of bees.


----------



## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

Having a mentor is an excellent idea. I have been doing this bee thingy on my own since 2005. I believe I have managed to bungle and kill a hive of bees by every means known except fire and flood....A mentor would have no doubt saved many of those hives. Live/learn and pray for a strong swarm season I always say.......


----------



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

I expect the calls to start coming in anytime in the next week or so.

Last year I was called and captured at least 12 swarms. Out of those, about 3 absconded. Last year's swarms just didn't do well last year - they didn't build much comb or gather much honey. I'm more of a "survival of the fittest" type, so didn't feed the ones I figured hadn't gathered enough. Out of the 12 hives I went into winter with, by early Spring I was down to 3. Somewhere along the line, 2 others died - leaving me with just one. Those last 2 hives were jammed full with honey - so still haven't figured out what happened with them.

So yes, I need some swarms to replenish my bee stock.


----------



## nostawmama (Dec 29, 2011)

I have a friend on facebook that just had a swarm removed from around their children's playset. They asked around for advice and someone put them in touch with the Bee Keepers Assoc. of Delaware. (didn't know we had one, lol). Glad they didn't get the bee spray and they found someone to appreciate them!


----------



## LittleRedHen (Apr 26, 2006)

I am setting out my two empty hives and hope they find me! but i have my feelers out for people who have swarms on their properties


----------



## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

Don't forget to put an ad on your local Craigslist!! I got a few calls from there last year. Free advertising.


----------

