How to catch a wild swarm of bees...

Thanks to Andre from Cardona and Sons, I had my first taste of harvesting a wild swarm which will now be filling one of our previously empty hives. As student I tried to follow all the instructions from the expert so here's how we did it...

It should be noted that the swarm was collected later in the evening once the temperature had dropped and the swarm collected for the night. If you harvest a swarm in the day you risk leaving a lot of bees behind...

1. Wear appropriate clothing! A veil and suit are essential as bee's can be unpredictable. Luckily these ones were very well behaved.
2. Lay a white sheet on the ground near the swarm. This will give them a guide to follow into the skep...

3. Place your Skep next to the swarm raising one edge to allow the bees entry...
4. Using a bee brush or other handy equipment start to 'encourage' the bees onto the sheet and towards the skep...

5. Once the bees have discovered the nice warm and cosy Skep they will release pheremones encouraging others to follow...

6. Use smoke lightly to encourage the bees to head towards the Skep. The smoke will help remove the pheremones from the queen that encourage the bees to stay in a swarm. The bees will soon begin to follow the queen into the Skep...

7. Once the bees have marched into the Skep wrap them into the blanket or sheet...

8. The Bee's can then be emptied into a nucleus...

Thanks again to Andre and if you fancy a hive of your own follow the link to Cardona and Son to find out more...