I Lost the Queen ... almost

Catching a swarm looks simple… until the queen makes a run for it. 🐝 I shook this swarm from a mulberry tree onto a white sheet so I could spot the queen and guide the colony into their new hive. But this time, she slipped straight into the box before I could see her. 🐝 That meant pulling frames back out and going hunting. 🐝 It’s always worth the extra effort. An uncaged queen can take off with the entire swarm at any moment - and that would be a pretty embarrassing outcome when a client has called you in specifically to make sure their swarm is caught and set up properly in a new hive. 🐝 Find the queen. Cage her. Let the bees settle. That’s how you make sure a swarm stays put. 🐝 — © Hinterland Bees