Swarm Lures and Awkward Bees

A couple of my colonies have been very swarmy of late. I suspect part of the problem is the swarms I caught last year are from stocks with a predisposition for swarming -in hindsight the fact they'ed swarmed for me to catch in the first place could've been a clue as to what to expect from them. The huge swarm I caught in July had been doing really well, raising a strong colony and filling Supers but a couple of weeks ago one morning the queen absconded taking a large contingent of workers with her leaving a supersedure cell and no swarm cells oddly enough. A couple of weeks ago a cast swarm went and sat in a neighbours fruit bush too and last weekend I collected a swarm from a fruit tree near my apiary. Not sure who's they were but the queen was marked blue so they've obviously slipped past someone's swarm control. As well as the usual weekly inspections and swarm control I decided to put out a bait hive and put swarm lure on a post so any swarms they managed to get by wouldn't go far. Looking on eBay for swarm lures I opted for the cheapest seller who's stock was in the UK and ordered 10 lures for £8.49 from someone uktrader2011. They seem to sell a lot of body piercing stuff as well as swarm lures and the text in the advert suggests the seller uses this stuff themselves and linked to a couple of videos of the seller showing the stuff in use. Good enough for me. Take my money!.

Swarm lures, store them carefully.

The lures came in little test tube things individually sealed in a plastic strip. I'm not sure what it's made of but it smells pleasant, whatever it is I think there's a little lemongrass oil in the mix. As well as the lure I decided to attach a box to a post to act as a bait hive too. I had a large polystyrene vegetable I'd found outside a supermarket knocking about in the shed and it was time I found a use for the thing. I cut a little hole in it then gave it a coat of water based masonry paint to protect it from sunlight and rain and strapped it to a post. I scribbled Swarm Trap on one side and marked the front with an arrow to the entrance for the benefit of anyone stumbling across it. Not sure if it'll work or not really as it might be a bit bright in there, usually a Bait Hive is an actual empty hive tucked out of the way somewhere or a big wooden box hung up a tree. I wiped some of the swarm attractant on a bit of wood, slung it in the box and wiped some more attractant on the post, the little test tube I also wired to the post. Whilst handling the lure I used disposeable nitrile gloves, you don't want to be walking about with swarm attractant on you.

Use the entrance. Can't you read?.

Two days later there was a large swarm on the post. The tube on it's bit of wire will have been in the centre of the cluster. The post was too firmly fixed to the gound for me to shake the bees off it but it looked simple enough to remove the box hold a Nuc underneath and brush them into it. Simple stuff. Unfortunately the bees had other ideas. I got about half of them into the box and the rest took flight. Popping the box on the ground for the fliers to join their sisters I started inspecting my hives. It would be very easy to see which colony had lost a swarm that size but my colonies were all intact. This swarm must've been drawn by the scent of the lure as they absconded from another apiary. I believe there's at least 6 other apiaries within a mile of this one so it's not too surprising although I'm wondering how strong this lure is and is every swarm in the city going to be heading to my post? Whatever the swarm lure's made from it certainly seems to work anyway. After ascertaining I wasn't missing any bees I found the actual swarm itself was now missing. Instead of the fliers and stragglers joining their sisters in the box those that were in had gone back the others and they'ed flown off. Not too far though. They were in a gooseberry bush. I gave them some time to form a cluster again then carefully made my way to them armed with my Nuc. Removing three of the five frames I held it under the cluster so close the cluster were half way into the box already then shook them into the box replaced the three frames and put the crownboard most of the way on leaving one end open a bit to help the stragglers get in. That should've been it really but instead they took flight again. This time moving into a very tangled collection of bushes.

Thirds resting place, wont be brushing or shaking anything out of there.

There was no way I could shake them out of that mass of twigs and plants. At this point I was thinking whoever had lost these bees was probably glad to see the back of them, and wondering if I really wanted such an awkward colony in my apiary at all. Still I had to get them in the box... Evidently they needed more incentive to stay in it so I swapped one of the new frames of foundation for a grotty looking frame of dark comb I'd earmarked for rendering and replacement. I also threw in the tube of swarm lure. Pushing the Nuc as far into the bush as I could without dislodging the bees I used some tin snips to cut away at the gantry of twigs, stalks, sticks and branches running through the cluster. As I went I removed the little offcuts one at a time placing them on the Nuc floor without dislodging their bee passengers. As the space in the Nuc slowly filled with twigs and leaves I noted bees weren't leaving it yet. Eventually I was able to bend the last couple  of branches into the Nuc and put the lid partway on leaving a space for the foliage and hopefully for bees to enter the box.

Doing as they're told at last.

It'd taken two hours to get to this point but eventually I was able to see workers Nosanoving to tell the other bees this was their home. Lifting one side of the crownbord I was able to pullout the twigs and so on and slip in the remaining frames without them traking flight again. I gave them another half hour to get in then took the box back to my apiary, sat it on top of another hive with the entrance pointing  the other way and soon saw bees Nosanoving at the entrance as flying bees went to join them. I'll leave them alone for a week or two before seeing how they're doing in there.

Stragglers going to join their sisters

Having checked the other hives I could see none are preparing to swarm at the moment, however with a period of  good weather predicted I'm expecting a few more passing swarms to be drawn to my baited post now. I dare say there may even be more from the colony today's awkward swarm had issued from too ..something to look forwards to there.