April 22, 2014…Swarm in short tree. Baited nuc hive very close. Wife says, “DO NOT CUT MY TREE.” The bees refused to enter this hive. Hal waits four days…no luck. He gets a bigger hive.
April 24, 2014…With a bigger hive consisting of two Westerns, Hal coaxes the bees in, opens the lid briefly to show us the bees, before closing everything up.
Cinches the belt so we don’t have to worry about the hive sliding open and bees flying around our heads while driving back.
April 24, 2014…This is the log hive where the bees swarmed from.
January 22, 2014…Same log hive, many fewer bees which are clustering up high.
Hive loaded into car, we are good to go!
Next morning…Day 1. Bees still here.
April 27, 2014…Day 3. The bees are flying well. Looks like they have accepted the move. Thank you, Hal, for getting us bees that have not been medicated, treated with mite strips or even fed with anything but their natural unadulterated honey.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
It is always fascinating seeing bees move home. I love the log tree hive. Amelia
Hal has been my inspiration since I’ve met him. He’s got three log hives, two at his place and one up river about 20 miles. I love looking at them too. I like his attitude of not treating the bees, not feeding them, not taking any honey…”she is strictly a bee log.”
Four days! We are often warned that swarms generally stay on a tree for only a day or so if not merely a matter of hours.
Those bees came through at least one night of heavy rainfall, possibly two. You’re right, I’ve seen swarms break up in half an hour or overnight as in the case about 5 days ago…that was a tiny cast swarm. I guess with swarms it’s unpredictable. I’m thankful to Hal for all the efforts he went through to get me (my neighbor) a swarm.
Why would swarming bees be less unpredictable than hived bees? 8) They spend those long winters in cluster devising new schemes to confuse beekeepers.
You never mentioned if you close the boot (trunk) of the car ?:)
Yes, I closed the ‘trunk,’ but in this car, the trunk is not separated from the driver’s seat. The driver and passengers are in the same compartment as the bees. It all worked out well because Hal had done a good job of sealing everything off. (No bailing out of the car because of flying bees or close calls of any sort which I’m happy to report. :-))
This is really interesting. We’re very busy with swarms right now!