Swarms 2015- Yet Another

Here is a swarm from yesterday at about 2 pm- from my hive #9- which was overflowing with bees and my strongest. I am way behind the eight ball on swarm control this year- and though I have been through all hives at least twice, last round showed queen cells in lots of them, and I haven't had time to follow up. At least I am catching the ones that happen at home so far. 

First- you hear the swarm- the general bee volume bumps a notch and it enters  your consciousness that a swarm is happening- and you go to look- and yep, a million bees in the air. If you haven't seen this before, its unbelievable, and probably scary. But of course, totally harmless. If I have time, and its early enough, I will try to get to the hive entry to see if I can't grab the queen as she comes out. But I think I only did this successfully once. Still- its worth it- especially if the bees end up on a high branch. Which in general, they don't. Fairly consistently they are lower than 10 feet- though I'd think being way higher would be to their advantage. I assume its the queen that chooses the spot- and she flies out and pretty much just lands somewhere she likes- but maybe they guide her?

For one thing- they also seem, over the years, to be fairly consistent about where they go in my yard. For example, this swarm landed on a Doug Fir, which has had at least 3 or 4 swarms on it before, and it's tucked away- not convenient-a bee would have to go hunting it. I can't see how there could be any scent from past swarms- so I have no idea why they choose this location. But there are three main locations- this one, a big pear tree, and the Katsuras in my yard. 

Here is the sequence once they started landing...first a small cluster-I assume this is where the queen has landed- and at this point, there are thousands of bees in the air. Then in about 10 minutes, they all land, until there are no bees at all in the air, except a few scouts. 

On this swarm- a simple one, but big (for me), I take a big light metal barrel up a ladder and and pull it up over the swarm, and then shake the swarm into the barrel. Here are the bees in the barrel (I would guess they are 6 inches deep):

Then I pour them into a hive where I have pulled out a few frames. They pour like water. This hive was two Westerns deep- which it needed.  Then I put a cover on, check that they are fanning, and go back to doing whatever it was I was doing before...