Swarm to bait hive

[Repwoc]

I had a call on Tuesday to a swarm in a pear tree. It was too high for me to reach - would have needed a scaffold tower or an exceptionally long swarm capture device. I set up two bait hives and left them.

Today I had a text message saying that one of the bait hives was in use, so I drove over. Indeed there were a few 10s of bees buzzing around the entrance, but the cluster was still hanging in the pear tree. I was just about to open the hive to see if there were any bees inside when the man spotted that there was a lot more activity around the cluster - then as we watched it dissolved into a mass of swirling bees which descended onto the bait hive and they all marched in. Result! Fantastic to watch.

I'll pop over again later this evening to pick them up.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Great to watch isn’t it?
A few weeks ago our bait hive on the potting shed was getting quite a bit of attention and one morning a swarm arrived only to hang itself in a tree some 50 feet away where it stayed for a couple of hours. Then it did just what you described. Lovely!

 

[Swarm]

Nice. No smart phone video?

 

[Newbeeneil]

Just noticed a few bees around the bait hive in my garden this afternoon, I'm quite looking forward to seeing them come in, I've not seen one arrive for a couple of years.
Last Monday I picked up 2 bait hives full of bees that had arrived over last weekend in two of my out apiaries then when I went into self isolation on Wednesday I got a call from two other out apiaries to say those baithives were now occupied!
Got to wait until next week to finish self isolation before I can assess them.

 

[Repwoc]

Nice. No smart phone video?

Yes - I haven't worked out how to upload it to the forum yet though.

 

[Repwoc]

Swarm entering bait hive.

 

[gmonag]

We all love to see that!