Swarm in tree 30′ above my empty hive boxes. Advice?

[Vincent Fazzi]

I took up beekeeping last spring. I’m a beginner. Had a swarm move in late last summer which didn’t stay around for winter. About three weeks ago I set out two deep boxes five feet apart and 2 1/2 feet off the ground and baited them with swarm commander. There are two frames in each. I also ordered a swarm trap and hung it from a branch about 12′ up, not far from the hive boxes. That’s been baited and hanging for about 3 weeks as well. Looking around just now I noticed a mass of comb and a swarm hanging from a tree branch almost directly above my boxes. Its up high, maybe 30-35′ in the open. It hangs down about 18″ and is about 12″x3″ wide. I’m guessing it’s about three full frames worth of comb. They look busy. Please advise. Is there anything to be done? Will they eventually swarm into a box? I don’t have a ladder that’d reach them and don’t know if there’s anything to do to draw them down into the hive boxes. I’m thinking they’d already need more room. I have medium boxes I can add on top of each deep. Will that temp them in? I can send pics or details if anyone is interested in giving me any pointers. I attended four of the hands-on mentoring sessions with Faith last year but nothing like this came up. Thanks ! – Vince

[Author]

Posts