A couple of weeks into swarm season, we caught a swarm in one of our boxes! You can see it in this video from our YouTube channel here:
It was such a beautiful day and had been an exceptionally warm week prior and we were so excited to see that one of our swarm traps had worked! Unfortunately, the day after they moved into the swarm box, they had to deal with a long streak of bad weather. It was cold and rainy for several days. We were worried about them, but they managed to find times to forage a bit even when the temperature wasn't ideal. We watched them once when it was 55°F, and they were sluggish, but working hard.
They next day (about 2-4 days after they initially moved in), we brought them to another location about 4-5 miles away from where they swarmed and they spent the first day just doing orientation flights. By the next day, they had gotten their bearings and were off to find a new foraging site! The weather has been up and down between rain and cold, but they find times most days to get out and forage. We were able to get up close to the box without any issues or aggression from the colony, which was a good thing to see.
After they'd been at the new site for a few days, it was time to transfer them to their permanent hive! You can see they process in this video:
This is one of the many layens hives we've built for this season. Hopefully, we'll have more swarms as the weather improves and we can fill most of the hives this summer! If not, we are so happy to have this colony. They've been very calm and hard working. The next step for them is to check on the queen, check for brood, and then move them back to their original location in the hive. Stay tuned for that journey!