It all started two and a half weeks ago. I arrived home from work just in time to watch in dismay as a swarm leaving my colony flew over the neighbor’s house and off into the distance towards their new home. I was extremely disappointed because I had high hopes of catching that swarm to start my second hive. The first swarm of the year for a particular bee colony is the best in my opinion. It is the largest and contains an established, mated queen bee. The afterswarms from a particular hive are often smaller and contain virgin queens. Immediately after my first swarm left, determined that I wouldn’t let another opportunity pass by, I set to work finishing the swarm traps I had started building over the winter. I built 4 traps, placed 3 in trees in various locations, and sold one for the cost to build all four. It has been a whirlwind since then…but before I narrate the events let me provide a little background.

Three years ago I started keeping bees. With a desire to keep bees naturally and inexpensively, I decided to start with a top bar hive. I picked up my first package on tax day three years ago and have had derivatives of the same colony ever since. I have been happy with the health of the top bar hive and have been able to harvest some honey from it. This hive alone has not been able to supply all the honey I need for my family. At the end of last season, I decided to start two more colonies this spring by catching swarms. Since I have successfully caught multiple swarms from my topbar hive the past two years, catching swarms to start new hives didn’t seem like a lofty goal. I started building the swarm traps to make catching them even easier.

Then, two and a half weeks ago I watched my most promising swarm fly off into the sunset and began doubting the reality of actually catching one, let alone two, swarms from my hive. With my pessimistic outlook, I baited my first swarm trap with Swarm Commander lure and hung it at my parents’ home Saturday in an attempt to catch a renegade swarm from someone else’s hive or perhaps from a wild colony. I also hung my second swarm trap up at my own house just in case my bees decided to swarm again, as they have the previous two years. On Monday there were so many bees on the first trap at my parents’ I thought I had already caught a swarm. I went over to her house scaled the tree and to my surprise, the swarm trap was completely empty. I called a friend and fellow beekeeper who advised me that sure sign of a resident swarm is watching for bees bringing in pollen. So I waited patiently. By the end of the week, they were bringing in pollen! First thing Monday morning, while the bees were still sleeping, I took the trap down and transported it to a friend’s bee yard temporarily. Hiving the swarm proved to be more of an adventure than I was looking for on a Monday morning. Upon opening the trap the bees immediately came at us. The swarm was fairly large and had completely filled the trap with comb already (six medium frames). By the time we had them in the hive, I had sustained several stings to the head (keep in mind I had my veil and jacket on, apparently not zipped up all the way). My partner did not fare much better unfortunately. Swollen and sore, I drove to work. Several hours later, my wife called me and inform me that my hive had produced its first afterswarm. I quickly pack up my things and headed home, excited to catch this swarm. One thing I appreciate about my bees, is how docile they are, a trait all the more appreciated after having hived the aggressive swarm earlier that day. My swarm had congregated on a sweet gum ball tree in my backyard at about eye level. I caught the swarm without any difficulty and took it over to my parents to hive it that evening. Because I had already hived one swarm that morning, I was short on equipment and had to spend the evening setting up my hive stand and building frames before I could actually hive the swarm. By nightfall I had hived my second swarm for the day.

Tuesday afternoon I receive another call from my wife. My hive is swarming again! Yes, two days in a row! I again left work early again to catch the second afterswarm. This time, like yesterday, they had gathered on a low branch in my backyard within easy reach from the ground. I caught them in a cardboard box, but, at this point, with two swarms hived and having initially only planned on beginning two new colonies, I was out of hive bottoms and tops. I called up a friend who happily came and took the swarm. He also offered to give me an old bottom board, inner cover, and outer cover he had at home so I could start a third hive if given the opportunity.

Keep in mind that I have a full time job, plus my wife has a part time job, and we have two young kids. My life is busy as it is without honey bees keeping me busy dawn to dusk.

Wednesday during lunch I went to my friend’s house to pick up the spare equipment… just in case. And it’s a good thing I did! Wednesday evening while eating supper I glanced out my window noticed yet another swarm gathered on the sweet gum ball tree in my backyard. I was flabbergasted. I cut air holes in a spare cardboard box and a small entrance to catch this third afterswarm. Unfortunately, this one proved a little more challenging to catch. After shaking the swarm into the box, I noticed that the bees were not exactly rushing to fly into the box as they usually do. After I observing the situation for a few minutes, I spotted the queen flying around the exterior of the box. Clearly that was a problem! I can’t say for sure, but I think after some coaxing/frightening the queen finally made it into the box. So off to my parents’ house again to hive another swarm. Of course I had to build some more equipment first. As dusk faded away, I was finally able to dump the bees into their new home.

Thursday I received a call that my first colony had absconded. This was quite disappointing because I had figured that colony was the only one from which I might potentially harvest honey from this year. Thursday evening I built hive bodies and frames.

Friday my friend actually re-caught the absconded colony and rehived them in a new location.  On Friday I also continued to build more hive bodies and frames.

At this point I had caught four swarms, and started three new colonies for myself. I also had scout bees on the remaining two swarm traps I had installed. My lonely top bar colony had swarmed four times at this point, a record for them, and I was confident that they would not swarm again. But on Saturday afternoon I started noticing signs that my topbar hive was wanting to swarm again. I was astounded! The flight patterns of the bees were very spontaneous, I saw scout bees checking out some of my old equipment in my garage, and I noticed several drones on the ground. My wife was working that day so the kids and I played in the backyard waiting for the hive to swarm. Sure enough about 30 minutes after naptime ended, the bees filled the air and hovered like a cloud over my backyard. Like many before it, the swarm again landed on the faithful sweet gum tree, this time 15 feet high. Seeing as my equipment was quite used up, I offered the swarm to one of my beekeeping friends, providing he could help catch it. After borrowing an extension ladder from a neighbor and multiple excruciating attempts to catch the queen, we finally did it. We caught the FIFTH swarm of my single topbar hive.

Sunday another beekeeping friend visited my third swarm trap and happily added the resident swarm to his bee yard.

In summary…seven days…six swarms…five swarms from my topbar hive…four afterswarms caught from my hive…three swarms hived…two swarms caught in traps…and one swarm absconded but found and hived again. What a crazy bee week! It’s swarm season!