First Swarm Call

I'm not on any swarm call list and I don't have a truck or a cell phone.   I'm not a prime candidate for scoring lots of swarms.  I did get a call on 5/13/12 from a neighbor on Alger Rd. who we know vaguely since our kids attend the same school.  They called to say a swarm was atop a tree in the middle of their circle driveway and while they were leaving, I could come and try to catch it if I wished.

The tree was a 35' tall ornamental pear and there were bees at the very top.  I set up my 20' tall folding ladder and tied it to the tree.  While standing in the tree just above where the ladder reached, I was able to cut down 4' long sections of branches that had bees on them.  None of them was a tight cluster of bees that might contain a queen, though.  They must have left already.  What remained was about 100-200 bees that were high enough to make me think the swarm might still be up there.  When the neighbors returned they confirmed it was a big mass of bees when they called, about the size of a basketball.  They had seen some on the brick face of a peak of their house under an eave.  There were still a few dozen bees there  and I climbed up to make sure there was no queen.  I brushed them off and they came right back.   The did not seem inclined to try to go up and in the gap between the house and the soffit.

I left a single deep hive there in case any of the scouts thought it a better home than where ever they flew to, though I think that unlikely.  Good luck to you, wild little swarm!