Our First Swarm

You can't really tell how big this swarm is from the picture.. but after we brushed `em into a cardboard box and took them home, we tried to hive them in a 5 frame NUC and they didn't fit. I estimate there were about 4-5 pounds of bees (approx 25,000). They were located about 8' up on the side of an oak tree. My wife leaned against the tree with a cardboard box on her head and I just brushed them into it with a broom. Easy as cake.

We ended up putting them in a deep hive body with a frame of honey (they were starving!) and 4-5 frames of drawn comb and some foundation. 3 days later when they'd calmed down, I was able to find the queen. A week later I found eggs. Since the swarm came from only 1/2 mile away, for the first week I put some brush in front of the entrance to disrupt their flight lines and help them re-orient to their new home. They're doing fine now- Hive #27 is happy and building.

For us, hiving our first swarm was like a right of passage to beekeeping. It was fun, profitable, and we look forward to our next.