Wow what a swarm

Katie getting ready. Note two swarm balls, large one above the box, but a smaller one in the upper frame edge.

About half an hour after the swarm was dropped in the box. Note that the box is full of bees on the inside as well.

Ready for a ride to their new home.

Big swarm event. The 'swarm' hive swarmed right before
1500 as we went from cloudy to sunny on a mid-70's day.
I was drawing on the patio and watching bees beard on the
porch, disperse on the front of the hive, and create flying
balls. Seemed to abort when clouds moved in, but then a little before 1500 there
was a committment, and a 30 foot diameter ball formed in the
air in front of the hive. I got lightly rained on with bee poop.
Eventually, after 10 minutes or so they began to drift east,
and very slowly, taking 20 minutes or so, moved about 100
feet east where they finally settled on neighbor's tree
branch about 8 feet up. Actually there were two clumps, and
the 2 clumps never did coalesce until we dropped the main,
lower, and larger ball of bees into a box. Pictures
available.

I was able to contact Katie, who had requested a call if
another swarm came up, by phone, and she was here about
1530. We set up one ladder under the main clump and tied
a cardboard box onto it. Another ladder under the limb
that needed shaking. Most of the bees went in the box
on the first shake. Looks like the queen went with them.
Katie closed up the box, and we retreated to have a beer.
There is a 2in x 2in hole in one side, at the bottom
and eventually the bees began funnelling into the box.
The extra clump disappeared, first into the air, and
then to the sides of the box.

Most bees were in the box, but there was a
fairly large bunch on the 'front' of the hive, above
and around the entrance hole. Katie went to get
some porous ground cloth to put around the box. There are
so many bees in this swarm they don't all fit into the
box, which is pretty good sized. Things stabilized on
the box. When Katie returned it seemed like all the bees
were not going to go in, no matter how long we left them.
So we brushed off the hangers on, taped the cloth over the
top and sides, and beat it for the pickup. Then a little
more taping. Off they went in that fashion. Further
report TBD.

Eventually the 'donor' hive settled down and foraging is
continuing. With the size of the swarm, i'm thinking this
was actually the first swarm. It's hard to estimate
because the branch they settled on had a lot of leaves,
but i think between 10 and 15 thousand bees.

After the box was taken to the pickup the left-behinds
took up station back on the branch above the ladder. A thousand bees maybe.
As late as 2030 i went back to retrieve the ladder, and
there were still a few bees on the ladder and some in the
tree, and they were STILL pissed off.