Then one day I noticed my bees in a tree. It is exciting to encounter a swarm, but dismaying at the same time when you know they are your bees. Fortunately, collecting them could not have been easier. They were about 8 feet from the hive, in a small limb about four feet off the ground. They sure made it easy for me and I was sure grateful for that. A few snips of the branch and a gentle shake into the empty side of the hive and I was all set. I remember feeling that I had done something wrong and that is why they swarmed. I thought I was keeping a careful eye on increasing the space in the hive, but have since come to realize that although there was lots of space in the back by the honey frames, they probably swarmed due to crowding near the entrance.
The next day there was another swarm in a tree. This was a bit trickier to deal with because they swarmed around the trunk of the tree. From what I could tell, it seemed that the swarm I put in my hive was swarming again, or this was an afterswarm from the original colony. In any case, I was able to get them back into the second side of the hive. When I shook them in, they did a curious thing. All of the sudden, they all seemed to stop, turn their butts towards me, and fan their wings vigorously making a distinct buzzing sound. I have since learned that they were fanning the queen's pheromones outward to attract any wayward bees back to the group. The swarm has since stayed put and built up comb.
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