Our hive swarmed over the Mother's Day weekend. On Sunday afternoon, our swarm flew away to find a new home. Later that same day, another different swarm of bees decided to take up shop in our front yard Maple tree! (How lucky was that!) Our swarm was 50 feet off the ground but this new swarm was only about 8 feet. My first attempt to capture this new swarm failed because when I cut the branch, it fell and knocked the bees off the branch. All I can do now is hope they re-cluster close by and try again when I get home this afternoon. Seeing a swarm in action can be both alarming to those who have never seen one as well as fascinating and the bees are not defensive during a swarm because they are only concerned about finding their new home.
Soooooo, they reclustered 2 feet off the ground. Here is our second attempt.
We didn't get the queen, so they crawled out of the hive and formed clustered around her again. Sigh. We're going to try again in the morning.