Capturing a Honeybee Swarm

Why would you want to capture a swarm? Even established professionals buy their bees packaged already. So why go all the trouble? Well, one thing is for sure, you might find it is actually fun. It also means a free package of new bees for a new hive.

Swarming or Swarms are honeybees way of spreading the family. To ensure the survivability of the species, the queen must lead half of her most trusted workers to another location while leaving the new generation to grow on their own.

Capturing a swarm can be hard but not daunting. It is also rewarding as you are not only helping the neighborhood from such fear, you are also learning more of their behavior to improve your own hives.

Manual Capture

One easy way to capture a swarm is when they're on a branch of a tree, which you could cut off. You can place the cut off branch with the swarm directly in a box or a sack without even wearing protective gear. You got to keep steady though. If you jolt them in a hard way, they could fly away.

Another one is by using a bee vacuum. Now, there isn't an industry standard for this yet. Most are just custom made. A simple structure would be to use your existing vacuum and plug it into an air-tight box. Inside the box is a smaller box, with screen windows. This is to keep the bees from clogging the suck hole. Then, make a smaller hole on both boxes for a 2-inch pipe to fit in. This is where the bees will go in. It is important to note that the suction process should be slow, as you don't want to kill the bees. If you cant control the power, make another hole on the outer box as a means to decrease suction power.

Swarm Traps

For a passive way, you may opt for swarm lures. Lemon grass oil is commonly used, but nasonov mimic pheromones have also become available. Nasonov is a pheromone naturally produced by scout worker bees to guide swarms into a suitable place. Try to experiment on which ones you prefer as they seem not to differ much.

Then, ready a swarm trap. There are boxes specially made for these, but any 15 to 30-liter box will do. One small entrance is enough. Remember, the box must be a suitable place for bees to live in. Pheromones wont be enough to convince them into choosing this as their next permanent residence.

For the lures, you usually dab it into a piece of wood, or directly at the entrance of the trap. Other lures are in a vial. Simply open, place it at the entrance and the lure will disperse slowly into the air.

Place the box right below or near the cluster of honeybees. If your trap has been chosen, all the bees will eventually enter the trap for you to easily collect. Unfortunately, it is a skill that you have to develop as you might find your trap ignored several times during the first few tries.

Swarm traps can be set anywhere you might suspect a swarm could travel to. You'd especially want to do this if its a swarm that could come from your hive.