Double Swarm Catch - Success From Failure

Catching two swarms at the same time. Weather compressed the swarming window, so I knew Easter Sunday was a likely day to see swarms.
Unfortunately these came from my own hives. Fortunately I have two new hives. You make the best of what the bees give you.
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[@mrtraumaboyy4098]

Wow!! You are the first to show the waggle dance on a swarm that I have seen. Just finished Honeybee democracy and amazing to see it just a couple days later. Appreciate your work!!

[@DuckRiverHoney]

What was really neat is I knew which swarm traps they were talking about. Very cool.

[@mrtraumaboyy4098]

@@DuckRiverHoney Gotta practice some before I can actually understand their message. Hopefully not with my bees but you never know....they does what they wants sometime.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

15 deg to the right of vertical = 15 deg to the right of the sun, from the swarms location. Short waggle run = short distance, long run = long distance. I had swarm traps with scout activity at both spots so I knew where they were talking about. Fun stuff. I’d love to spend some time beelining, that would be neat.

[@markmurphy8303]

Hello mate, don’t you just hate it when a swarm wraps itself around big old tree trunks so much easier when they’re hanging from a nice bendy branch and you can shake them in your box, a lot of your bees went up in the air . Where about two weeks away from swarm season over here in the UK but have already placed six swarm traps up. Nice you caught your two swarms and got them into your hives. Thank you for sharing your vlogs with us my friend great content.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks, I appreciate it! I'm learning lots about video, trying to get better.

[@randalljarnigan5897]

Good morning. I really enjoy your videos keep up the good work.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks, I appreciate it!

[@matthewmccormick2417]

Get a painters pole and attach a nice basket to it. You will always need it and is a good investment. Swarms wont defend because they do not have a home to protect. That is why the temperment is better on a swarm.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@eddevault4604]

Just because they return to the original spot....does not mean you don’t have the Queen....they return to that spot looking for her....the fanning is an excellent indication that you have the Queen....

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Yep, it took them a while to get it sorted out, but they did. Patience is a virtue with bees.

[@drjmarkrodgers1428]

Doesn’t look like any kind of failure! Happy free bees!!!

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks Mark!

[@wayneshoneybees5439]

Swarm season is just starting in Ohio southwest corner. Redbud trees just now starting to bloom. Grab that vine and shake it. No brush needed.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@mustafababdullah2485]

First time ever ever seen someone use a tree stand for a trap hahaha ingenious.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Use what you’ve got!

[@guygordon2780]

Be sure to let us know if you ever manage to find a location being scouted by reading the waggle dance. I'd love to see that done. One problem I see is the beautiful terrain around your apiary. Tough to walk as the bee flies!

[@DuckRiverHoney]

I saw bees talking about two different swarm traps on that one...opposite directions, so it was pretty easy to figure out. It's just super neat to be able to see that. You'll see a bee waggling on a frame sometimes during inspections, but not nearly as much as on a swarm.

[@rickhermann7639]

for the one around tree. get 2 hoses for a battery operated shop vac. put a strapped together hive box with a hole on each side. put a screen and cloth on the vacuum side so you don't damage bees and vacuum them into the box. just have tape to cover the holes when you are done

[@DuckRiverHoney]

A bee vac would be a cool tool to have.

[@sheilamclaughlin963]

Easy to build asi did to use a hive box so they r easy to move

[@Lsmith-ly2cm]

Very good video thanks again.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@rickriley7018]

I suspect the reason swarms are usually pretty calm is they have no permanent home yet and no young or stores to protect. I love to get swarms BUT particularly to get a feral swarm as they are probably acclimated to your climate and often are survivors....Yea man Honey bees are fun.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

They’re always interesting, I love it.

[@majorjc]

Love those freebees!

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@eddevault4604]

The clock is ticking....no use doing anything but catching the bees....before they leave....suggestion:....get you a painter pole and wire cage waste basket...the bees will always tell you where the Queen is...stick to it until they start fanning...at the entrance....

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@jhulin9018]

To Nathan, the King of Swarm Catchers...Today, 2022-01-14 over here north of Houston, TX someone on Next Door Neighbor posted a request to come capture a swarm in their yard. I went into my 7 hives today and we are starting to brood up over here in Texas (I have been feeding open pollen and sugar water). What next...snow in August? By the way you should consider entering the swarm catch competition between Mr Ed and Dirt Rooster :)

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Lol, we’re expecting 7” of snow this weekend, but when I checked hives in December they were starting drone brood. Crazy! I just hope mine didn’t go through too much food during the warm parts. We’ve got a ways to go with no weather for feeding.

[@michaelfike7542]

Had a hive to swarm Saturday as soon as the sun 🌞 warmed up. Only went about 6 foot on a limb so got them back in a new box and they are working great. 👍

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Awesome! I love how energized and determined swarms are to get to work. They're fun bees to play with.

[@michaelfike7542]

@@DuckRiverHoney the most fun i have had all year and only 1 sting .

[@DuckRiverHoney]

They're usually pretty sweet tempered.

[@michaelfike7542]

@@DuckRiverHoney oh yeah only a day in bed to get over it. I'm am highly allergic to them but I do it anyway. Benadryl doesn't faze it a bit but oh well I can make it work out. ❤🐝🐝🐝

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Yikes! That's awful, hope it gets better! I used to swell up and get real itchy the next day. Not even that bad anymore.

[@MikeBarryBees]

Aww man!! No ladder? Swarms, ladders, beekeepers, and cameras always have the potential for a $10K video on America's Funniest Home Videos......I'm waiting to see some start hanging in my bee yard. Only a matter of time. Still need to cutout the trapped swarm, but at least got it home finally. Other two boxes are showing scouts, so shouldn't be long. Time to start putting bees up for sale!!

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Fun times Mike! I drove out to my bee yard yesterday and thought it was like Christmas, but the opposite....I DIDN'T want see any presents on the trees. Luckily I didn't. I think I've got one swarm in a trap already, need to check the rest of them tomorrow or over the weekend.

[@scotthibbs]

Congratz on catching two of your swarms. Better than losing them!

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@2kings3queens]

Please make sure to update us on which of your colonies you think the swarms came from, will be valuable data as to how the nectar management swarm prevention works I just reversed my double deep hive on easter here in NJ , I know our season is at least 3 weeks behind yours

[@DuckRiverHoney]

I plan to check in 3 weeks or a month for queenright, but the real test will be honey production. Whichever hive lost that 6 frame swarm is going to have a hard time making honey. My plan this year is expansion to ~30 colonies, comb building, and try to make honey. Next year is honey production, and encouraging genetics that work with my management plan.

[@strugglingbeekeepermarkcot9642]

It is starting. Hope they do well for you. I have 6 swarm traps out so far here in northern West Virginia.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks Mark! The next 4 weeks will be busy.

[@billrobinson5301]

In the event that it helps in catching a swarm, a bee keeper in my area in Pennsylvania is now using a large modified butterfly net on a pull to catch the swarm after shaking it into the net, easier that trying to use a bucket and provide additional reach agility.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Sounds interesting. I’d like to see that.

[@billrobinson5301]

@@DuckRiverHoney The butterfly net approach I noted was bye Fredrick Dunn, he shows that in one of his episodes on KZbin. A telescoping handle is good too.

[@TopDog84]

Try to spray them with water before you shake them into the bucket. Than much less bees should fly up.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@markarnill5096]

I think you should try feeding a candy bored

[@markarnill5096]

And feed them sugar water to get them to build Comb

[@BlanchardsBees]

You can put tree branches, tall grass or something in front of the hive entrances after moving them more than 3 feet or less than 3 miles and they will re-orientate to thier new home area.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

I did that a few times last year with pretty good success, but I usually wound up with a softball sized cluster of bees on the old swarm trap location. This year I plan to move them to a reorientation yard before bringing them back, unless I can move them the night after they moved into a box.

[@richreincke7197]

Bob Binnie has said that a mixture of 1 1/3 parts water to 1 part sugar is a good mixture for drawing comb.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Yep, 1.3 to 1 has been found through research to be best for stimulating comb building. Mr Binnie does a great job citing research. I respect that a lot.

[@beekeepinggarden165]

Great 👌 free Bee 🐝 important they will be building your frames 👌👌🐝🐝🐝

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@russk3931]

Good job recovering those swarms. I would like to throw two points at you to see what you think of them. 1st - weekly inspections would have discovered queen cells being capped. Taking the queen and a couple of frames of brood would have stopped the swarming. 2nd - adding supers early with a queen excluder on crowded hives would have given hives more space for bees and maybe opened up some cells of nectar in the bottom 2 boxes. Just my thoughts.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks for the thoughts. 1st - I may have caught queen cells. I may have also torn up a bunch of drone brood and damaged queen cells opening boxes. Definitely setting each colony back, maybe setting up a split, definitely spending a lot of time each week doing full inspections on each hive. I’m short of time. My strategy is to use Walt Wrights Nectar Management or a variant of it, which encourages the bees to expand and not swarm. 2nd - I added supers early with what I had of drawn comb, checker boarding comb to break the honey dome. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m4aWhXyDbZqlkKs

[@russk3931]

@@DuckRiverHoney Tipping boxes up and checking on the bottom would be quick. Yah, time and short on drawn comb makes it challenging. Good luck and thanks for the video and your time.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

It’s quick to tip, but tipping can also tear cells. So far I’ve lost one swarm (I think I lost it anyway), and I caught two by hand. I’ve caught another of my own swarms in a trap since then. I’m happy with this plan and the time and stress it takes to implement. My goals for the year are make as much honey as I can, triple my hive count, and build comb. I’m making progress on 2 & 3, honey production we’ll wait and see.

[@russk3931]

@@DuckRiverHoney I'm still slightly confused. Why worry about losing a swarm cell and some drones? You don't want your bees to swarm and lots of drones are not needed. By leaving them to raise swarm cells you are asking your hives to swarm. Sorry to sound confused, just wondering if you have an alternative plan/ideas??

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Well, once a hive decides to swarm it is really hard to convince it not to. So if I go in looking for cells and find them, I need to find the queen and do a split, then probably do another couple splits with cells, and make sure I don't leave too much strength or the mother hive will swarm with a virgin. Going through all the hives each week is a lot of work. Going through all the hives tears drone cells up. I think drones are good for the hive, they obviously want them there. Tearing cells up and squishing bees sets the hive back each week you do that. I want max honey production, not setting hives back. So my strategy is to jump in as soon as the weather is stable (Late Feb to early March here), break the honey dome, checkerboard in drawn comb, and that one maneuver should be mostly effective in preventing swarming. If it isn't effective in preventing swarming, then I have a bunch of swarm traps set up to catch swarms. I also go out to my yard on most days where the weather is prime for swarming and check.

[@matthewmccormick2417]

Why MEDS? Deeps are sp easy to manage for even honey supers. Also i use 10 frame deeps for nukes with 2 frame sized insulated fillers to downsize to 6 frames. Makes management so easy and also good for swarm traps

[@DuckRiverHoney]

All one size box is more efficient in my opinion, it seems you agree with that as well. I use mediums four ways: 1. Hive body 2. Honey super 3. Nuc box - 8 frames with a double frame feeder is close to a 5 frame deep nuc in comb area 4. Swarm trap with a spacer Advantages: 1. Cost - all one size box and frame and foundation = bulk purchases = cheaper pricing 2. Simplicity - everything interchangeable Reason I went with mediums instead of deeps is weight and future proofing. A full 10 frame medium is ~50 lbs, a deep ~85 lbs. And if I need to go to 8 frame medium boxes in another 30 years then it's easier to transition from 10 frame medium to 8 frame medium than it is to go from deep to medium....you'd have to turn over all your comb to do that.

[@peterlightbody8443]

Well done , they say feral bees have a high tendency to swarm each year , splitting can prevent it , exciting time of the year for you , the name Duck River Honey is there actually a river near you with that name ?, take care Peter Australia 🇦🇺

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Feral bees deal with Varroa in one way or another. Frequent swarming is one way they could. Don’t know yet if that’s the case or not. Next year I’ll start making judgements on genetics and promoting what I want. The Duck River splits our family farm. Beautiful small river with lots of catfish and smallmouth bass.

[@sheiladuncan1027]

Have you thought about hanging a few Russian Scion traps around your yard ? I'm just learning about bee keeping and saw some videos on them last week. I'd never heard of them before, but it seems useful.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

I’ll have to look into it.

[@rodneymiddleton9624]

I put a excluder on the bottom boards for a few days for her to start laying to anchor her to the box. Wish I could catch more swarms!!!

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Yep, I considered that on the big swarm. But they were settled pretty well and I figured the syrup and extra space would anchor them. I wouldn't put one under the smaller swarms for fear that a virgin is in there and then she couldn't fly to get mated.

[@rodneymiddleton9624]

@@DuckRiverHoney I had a virgin in the swarm I caught I'm thinking because it's 12 days since I caught it and she is just now laying. The wire mesh trash can is the ticket. Thanks!

[@guygordon2780]

R.E. Lack of drawn comb: Maybe you could draw your own comb with a 3D printer. Has anyone tried 3D printing with Beeswax? Of course it wouldn't be as smooth-walled as the real thing, but maybe the bees would fix that. Another possibility would be to use a 3D printer to pattern a starter layer of wax on a foundation. That might be more attractive to bees that foundation waxed with a paint roller. Just seems to me that if bees are willing to use wax you paint on foundation, they'd use patterned wax and have less work to do. (Probably thinking "That sister who laid this down was SLOPPY")

[@DuckRiverHoney]

That's a neat concept. I know that Better Bee is selling some Better Comb that might help, but to be honest I'm paying my swarms this year with 1.3 : 1 sugar syrup to make comb for me. By next year I plan to have most of what I need.

[@mattv6021]

Like the videos!

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@mattv6021]

Just got my traps out in northern wisconsin

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Good luck! I need to catch about 10 more, hope I do.

[@mattv6021]

How many hives do you have?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Started this year with 9, have 17 now. Want to go into winter with 25-30

[@wadebarnes6720]

When you catch a swarm how long do you wait to look into the box to see what you got

[@rodneymiddleton9624]

I usually wait until I see pollen coming in at a good rate or 2 weeks.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

When I'm off work and have time is the real-world answer. LOL. If guard bees are there and pollen is coming in I consider them safe to move. If I think they've been there a few days I am MUCH more careful about reorienting.

[@rodneymiddleton9624]

@@DuckRiverHoney We learn something new every time we work with them.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Truth!

[@wadebarnes6720]

I got two swarms this year one of them got a regular size queen the other one got a queen smaller than a worker and been there for about 2 weeks never seen a queen that little

[@sheilamclaughlin963]

If u can catch the queen u v got them,

[@babybeeapiaries8667]

What kind of microphone are you using?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

I’ve got a couple different things I use, but the Rode Go is what I like best.

[@humblepiehomestead1201]

What is the feasibility of collecting a swarm with a bee-vac?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Pretty good I’d say.

[@sheilamclaughlin963]

Better than loosing them

[@RyanMcDonnough]

Have you installed any scions in your apiaries? Should make it easier to find and recover swarms from your own hives.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

No, but I’ve got some small trees in front of my hives that they really like to go to.

[@RyanMcDonnough]

@@DuckRiverHoney Maybe consider building a few bucket lid scions and hanging them up in your apiaries. Much faster and easier to recover swarms.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

I have thought about it.

[@cecildean3648]

How do you know when a honey flow is starting?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

I’ve started - but not finished - a video on that. 😀. I need to get it done.

[@johnmiglautsch4587]

What are the black frames?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Solid plastic frames I'm experimenting with. Mann Lake PF-137 I believe? It's a small cell black plastic foundation with plastic frame.

[@johnmiglautsch4587]

@@DuckRiverHoney you got those because you don't have much foundation yet? I'm starting with Layens - my first try this spring

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Some people believe small cell is one path to successful treatment free beekeeping. Solid plastic frames are known for being extremely durable, and they require NO labor from me to use. My other frames are wooden with black plastic foundation, and I have to assemble the frames and install foundation. So it's an experiment. I want to get the comb built and see how it does.

[@sheilamclaughlin963]

Also easier to see eggs as u age

[@johnmiglautsch4587]

Doesn't look like they offer Layens. I wonder if there is anyone in the Midwest who does?

[@richardr616]

Can we get an update?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Yes, I’ve got it shot but not edited! Work has been crazy this week.

[@richardr616]

@@DuckRiverHoney great. Found you last week and binged. One of my favorites now. Can’t wait

[@DuckRiverHoney]

That’s great Richard! I can honestly say that I never in my life thought that I would be binge watched! 🤣

[@sheilamclaughlin963]

U need a box with u so u can shake them in it and take it home,

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks

[@tennheadshot3539]

I am in Culleoka, TN and a third year bee keeper!!! Your videos are great and informative. I have a bee business called BeeKept and I would love to see how we can scratch each other’s backs. I have clients in Santa Fe and all over Columbia. Shoot me an email and maybe we can get together. I have learned a lot from your videos!

[@DuckRiverHoney]

My email is [e-mail]