JPthebeeman

I had a lot of practice catching swarms last summer.  As you can see below the problem is that my bees don't seem to realise that they are supposed to hang in a neat cluster from a branch, waiting for me to drop them into a box.

I don't know if you have come across JPthebeeman on YouTube but he's well worth looking out for.  He makes videos about catching swarms, often in very difficult places, and extracting established colonies from places they shouldn't be.  He's great fun to watch and obviously knows a lot about bees.  He is Jeff Armstrong from Metairie, Louisiana so his bees and his season are very different from ours.  He does use a smoker but seldom wears a veil or bee jacket and hardly ever seems to get stung.  Amazing.

One thing I have learnt from watching him is always to have a queen clip immediately at hand, ready to catch the queen if she is seen.

You can watch this recent upload to YouTube about catching a swarm or this one about removing a colony from the wall of a house and you'll get a taste of what he gets up to.  There are lots more videos as well.

As JP would say, "Y'all have a good day, 'coz I sure am".