Another lesson learned

I have been trying so hard not to have a swarm this year.  Fourteen days ago two of my three colonies had charged but unsealed queen cells so I split them both, putting the queens into nucs. Seven days later I re-inspected them both, reducing each to one queen cell.  Job done.  When the postman came yesterday morning he told me he had seen a "massive" swarm around the holly bush in my neighbour's garden on Saturday, two days before, and wondered if they might still be there.  I explained that the bees move off to their chosen site within a few hours, especially in fine weather as we have had.

Yesterday afternoon I was gardening and could hear a lot of bees.  I noticed them flying around the eaves and thought the swarm must have taken up residence in my roof.  I put on my suit and went up into the roof to see what was going on and found - no bees. Then I realised the bees had been flying around rather than in and out so I wondered if they might be scouts.  I went round to my neighbour's garden and found this, 55 hours after the swarm departed.

Thinking they might be nearly ready to move off I hurried home to fetch some kit and whizzed back again to collect them. Although they were in a holly bush it was an easy catch as almost the whole swarm was hanging from one branch.

When I went back to collect them all was quiet, with no sign of a bee.  I thought they may have absconded but when I looked in the box they were all there, waiting patiently.

The box I had chosen was larger than the nuc, which presented difficulties in tipping them in.  I decided to risk walking them in, something I have read about but have not seen or done before.  I tipped all the bees onto the sheet and watched.  Slowly they started to make their way upwards but it was slow.  There seemed to be so many bees Nasanov fanning that they were almost blocking the entrance and even though I had removed the entrance block it was hard to get in.

After an hour there was some progress and it looked like this.

After an hour and a half it looked like this - 9.30 pm and getting dark.  The bees were placid but seemed lethargic, perhaps they were cold and hungry.  Whatever they felt like they didn't have much option but to go in.

And at 10 pm and pitch dark.

And this morning, almost all in.  I managed to coax the last dozen or so cold tired bees inside.

Now they are safely back here in a nuc I am very relieved, as putting them in box was a lot easier than trying to get them out of the roof would have been.  I don't know why they were taking so long to make their minds up about where to settle down.  Next time the postman tells me he's seen a swarm I'll check straight away, except I hope there won't be a next time.