!!! SWARM CAPTURED !!!

The cloud swarm

Yesterday, while talking to Maidi and Karly in Karly's room, I glanced out the window and saw a cloud of bees in the back yard.  (Orange links are videos.)  We ran outside to see.  A swarm in my own yard!  I watched to see what way it was heading, and it looked like it was going toward Paul's yard.  He was outside and I went over there and we watched it, but it stopped migrating.  Then Karly called out that they were closing in on the lemon tree.  Paul and I came back, and sure enough, a cluster was forming in the lemon tree.

Cluster in tree

Close-up of cluster

Had one of my hives swarmed or was this from a wild hive?  I had seen swarm cells in the new hive, but the ones I saw were uncapped.  I went down and took a quick look inside the new hive, but I really couldn't tell if there were fewer bees.  There were fewer crawling on top of the frames than I recalled, but it was mid-afternoon.  I emailed Jeremy about this last night and he wrote back this morning and said that since I saw uncapped swarm cells, it was most likely that the new colony had swarmed.  I'll check in a couple of weeks to see if there is a laying queen.
Before collecting the bees, I took the top off of Olea's hive and removed the top bars.  I left the false back board in.  I filled the entrance feeder and placed it in the box on the other side of the false back so that it couldn't be seen by robber bees.  I figured the new colony would need to be fed like the original package that I bought last year had needed. The girls will need to make a lot of comb.

Back to the cluster.  There they were in the tree.  I brought out my cardboard boxes.  Initially I selected a large one.  I cut off a couple of small branches to better expose the swarm.  I tried to fit the large box beneath the bees, but it didn't fit.  I got a flatter box and it fit beneath the bees.  I had to squeeze around the branches to see just which branch they were hanging on.  After I identified it, I shook some bees into the box and then cut the branch.  The branch and bees plopped into the box.  They climbed all over the bottom and sides and onto the flaps.

Shaking the bees out of the box

I carried the box down to the hive, took out the branch and shook the bees off it.  They fell into the hive.  There were still a lot of bees in the box, so I just poured them into the hive and shook out most of what was left.

Replacing the top bars

Next, I had to put the hive back together.  I placed the top bars back one-by-one, using the bee brush and going slowly to avoid squishing anyone.  They continued to climb up the sides onto the rim.

Bees in and on Olea's hive

Examining the feeder

Finally all the bars were back in place.  I left the feeder uncovered so I could refill it.
Then the top board and lid, and voila!, a new hive.  There was a coating of bees around the entrance which gradually moved inside.

Fanning at entrance

We saw bees scenting the air with their Nasonov glands, too.  You can see some bees with their butts up in the air releasing the pheromone.  What you can't see is their wings moving.

When we looked in the observation window yesterday, all we could see was a sheet of bees.  I expected to see them more organized today, perhaps starting to draw comb.  We did look this morning and the bees were in a cluster near the entrance, starting to move about.
All in all, a  very exciting afternoon.