First swarm catch of the year- and my favorite out apiary

 I''m scrambling to catch up with the plans I made this year for managing my hives- everything seems to take longer than it used to, and there are so many things to fix and prepare. My goal always is to try to manage as many hives as  I can responsibly, and to try to make managing (say) 40, the same as managing 10. Lots I have done streamlines this- all hives have pretty much the exact same equipment, I use only Westerns, all have the same tops and bottoms.

But swarm time- now until mid-June- is always a challenge with 20-30 hives. There just isn't time to go through them to check- at least, not when you are working full time on another job. So inevitably I lose a few - though I catch 90% of them. The problem is out-apiaries- and I think lots happens there that I don't see, and the only clue I have that swarming has happened is seeing diminished hives strengths, and unmarked queens.

This week was supposed to rain straight for 5 days. It rained for one., then opened with sunshine. As I was behind, I drove down the valley to check on my primary apiary, mid morning.

Mid-morning, in Spring, after a time of confinement due to rain, is like swarm city, if you don't know that already. And sure enough, I found one as I rounded the bamboo clump -a big one , 5 or 6 pounds I'd guess. What a great tree for the beekeeper is bamboo! The bees load up on it, and it gently bends to the ground, waiting for a beekeepers with some clippers to hive it. Like a swarm on a silver plate, without the plate.

A pretty good sized primary swarm- not huge, but decent enough to make a new hive.

So I hive this swarm-  and I have caught a lot of swarms over the years, and those that are like this are plums, you pick them up enmasse, and shake them directly into a hive body. It never fails.  Easy, 

But this one didn't stick- I either didn't get the queen (how is that possible?), or I shook her and she didn't fall into the box and she flew off. So they kept exiting, going up to  the bamboo, weighing it down, then I'd cut if off- shake it in- and finally, I think the fifth time- they stuck. Queen went in- and I started dumping the rest in front of the hive on some cardboard- which looked like this:

And here is a video clip of all those bees realizing (finally) that their queen was inside, and moving toward her. In 15 minutes their all inside and getting to work.

This apiary is my favorite- very quiet, idyllic, and good friends live there:

Here's two nearby out on their own, with a swarm box (freshly sprayed with queen scent), 15 feet in a tree beyond. It has a tongue of wax below it, where a swarm once clustered. To the left is where I set my mating boxes in June. All around, blooming Maple and apples.