Honey bee swarm capture, or bees swarm rescue, or hiving a swarm caught on video. Capturing a honeybee swarm is a neat experience. Bees swarm in the spring, and then they move to a tree limb to start looking for a new home. This is when we can capture the swarm.
This honeybee swarm was in Carroll Gardens Brooklyn, where there are a lot of urban beekeepers. In the spring the honeybees swarm, half of the bees leave the hive with the queen to form a new colony in a hollow tree, ideally. The swarm bees will cluster on a tree limb while their scouts fly out and look for a new home.
Beekeepers can take advantage of this cluster to create a new beehive. The bees are very docile while they are swarming, they have no hive to defend, so they are not out to sting you.
Luckily, these bees here on a low hanging limb that i was able to get to with a ladder. You take a bucket, place it below the swarm, and thump the branch on the bucket so the bees drop into the bucket.
Next time i should have a helmet cam on, it was a very cool thing to watch. This video shows the view from down on the ground. It was neat, to say the least. What is key here is I had an empty hive on standby for a swarm call like this.
You can also drop the bees into a cardboard box that has large vent holes covered with screening. The bees NEED lots of air or they will overheat.
We leave the swarm box on the ground for several hours to let all the bees fly into the box, ideally you will move the box in the evening, when its cooler and the bees are calmer.
Check out some nice photos of a swarm capture by Phillipe here.
In Brooklyn, honeybee swarms have become a regular occurrence, and people will walk right by without even looking sometimes. Check out all of our how to raise honeybee videos here
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Gordon Medley says
@GardenForkTV Why did they swarm and how did you know you could use these bees? Where would they most likely come from in such a busy city?
Tonia Moxley says
Nice capture! I wish I had more hive equipment to catch more swarms this year. I caught two in April. But with that and two packages, I’m out of hives!
Scott says
Dude that is awesome!
Are you going to put them on your roof in Brooklyn or take them to the farm?
Eric Gunnar Rochow says
@scott, i brought them up to the beeyard in CT, though i am planning on having a few hives in NYC this summer. stay tuned.
Scott says
@ Eric I am really looking forward to seeing some videos and blogs about the “NYC Hives” all the hives keep in town seem to do so much better than the ones in the country…however the honey seems to be a lot lighter. I can’t wait to see how your bees go in the city!