Swarm capture

I'm thrilled to report that I captured a swarm yesterday, the 27th. The day started out like any other Saturday morning, when I checked my phone to see there were 9 missed calls! A friend of mine had spotted a huge swarm on his farm, and I can imagine him calling frantically. I got there in 20 minutes and got out my spray bottle with syrup, pruning shears, and a nuc box. He had already placed a ladder on the (ackee) tree the swarm was in. we sprayed them down a few times to make their wings sticky and lessen the amount of airborne bees when the swarm is shifted. We then cut of the small branch with the bees and then descended the ladder. The bees were very docile, (swarms tend to be less grumpy because their stomachs are full) and I then shook a few thousand into the box, and let the majority climb up a ramp I had previously set up. I saw on another website that the bees are more likely to stay when they march into the hive on their own.
      About two thirds of the bees entered the nuc box (i.e. nucleus. A smaller version of a 10 frame hive body), when I realized that the box was too small..This was a very large swarm, the largest I have ever seen.... I had to head back home for a standard deep hive body (lesson learned), then re-hive them, even then, they seemed crowded.(I miss my camera) The nuc was so crowded, the front and sides was bearded (i.e. bees hanging out on the front of the hive likened to a thick beard). The ramp (another nuc cover) had rested on a concrete block, and the bees had filled one the block pockets! (wander if they would have made comb in there).

       I think I just might get some honey from this hive in a few months! Shown here is a picture of the ackee fruit. now just picture forty thousand bees clinging to a small branch like that 15 feet overhead.. whew!