2 swarms captured already!

So I have my three big 30 bar Top BAR hives made and am painting them on the front carport.
Wife's car relegated to the uncovered area - dirty looks in my direction ensuing of course .

The large hives are looking quite nice - one all ready for the kitchen cupboard hive transfer
A few days ago my mother-in-law late in the afternoon calls and tells me she has a swarm sitting on a post.
But I just didn't have anything but the large hives to capture it and the bee vacuum would not work in the middle of a field almost a kilometre from a power point (think I will borrow a mate's mini generator next time - maybe?? which would solve the issue)

Bugger! Missed a swarm! Free bees!

So I started making up some 15 bar deepTop bar hives in the school work shop - half the size of my big hives. I had a couple of bits of ply in my shed that would most likely be appropriate in size for the task. once cut up I had enough for seven smaller hives.

Isn't that just bee keeping - start with one or two then before you know (two weeks time for me) you have 10 hives (3 large and 7 medium-sized top bar hives)

So due to possibility of more swarms - two days ago I took the first two of these medium-sized hives home to start painting them for the next swarm phone call I might get

Out of the big hives - only one been painted with three coats of the paint left over from painting outside of my house

Note: not oil based but it did allow me to still not spend any money on the hives - and I have a 15 litre bucket of it!

Today as I was getting chook food and horse food on the way home from work - again the mother-in-law calls - "a swarm on the top of a fence post" - awesome! I will be there asap.

So I go home first  (basically on the way) and drop off all the bags of animal food total over-flowing my ute tray area - and the two more unpainted small hives I had put together at lunch break today I had planned to start painting that evening.
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I then pick up one of the two painted medium-sized hives I had been layering with paint the last two days - plus 15 top bars for it and off I go a further 20 minutes down the road to the melon farm

Sadly I hadn't had the time yet to coat with beeswax on the bottom of the top bars - that was happening tomorrow or Sunday morning. Much better with smidgen of beeswax on top bar for acceptance by the bees - but couldn't be helped.

When I arrive at the melon farm - I drove straight past the fence post swarm. Missed it totally - it was only about the size of two fists (maybe three) together - a lot smaller than I had expected in hindsight

When I arrived my mother-in-law was doing her evening bird watch (driving away thousands of cockatoos that take a small bite out of a melon in turn ruining it for market). I drove to her and she pointed me right back where I had drove passed to find the swarm.

On my return to an area between two banks of of hired commercial hives (for pollination services) along a fence line, I spy a huge swarm low to ground in & on the fence line and the weeds growing around it. Looks like there are two swarms today - one huge and one small.

Bugger I didn't think to take a photo or video the process till after !!!!
Here is the fence post the small swarm was hanging off - only a couple of stragglers left now!

I had not yet put on a beekeeper's suit rather had on just my work clothes - as swarms are usually calm and fully of honey that they had eaten before leaving their old hive to sustain them while searching for a new hive site.- no need to suit up (hopefully! but sadly wrong!)

There are plenty of bees buzzing about as I place the small top bar box with no bars in it, next to the fence and tilted the edge of it till it was under and next to the lowest part of the fence and the swarm clinging to it. I give the fence a jolt and half the swarm falls into the hive box.

Instantly the bees attack me - I run and scream off 40m or so (no not really but wanted to!) and even 40m away form swarm still I am getting stung - 20-30 times at least - very pissed off bees. I head back to farm house and borrow a bee suit - then straight back to the big swarm. This time finally noticing the small swarm still on the top of the metal fence post. Father-in-law suggest that the big swarm were aggressive due to most likely being a swarm for a few days and running out of food and thus pissed off at anything!

Now fully suited but the aggro bees are all over the box and not me! About half are still on the fence and I replace the hive box under them and give it another shake - the majority are now in the new hive box. I had closed the the entrances on the box but now opened them to allow excess bees that didn't get in the box during the shake to enter the hive.

Some advise to close extra entrances so bees new to a box don't have to do much guarding but with so many bees in this swarm - not needed. So, I remove the duc tape from entrances - maybe the swarm will take off maybe not time will tell. I place the hive box on an old plastic banana box to raise it off the ground and allow ventilation to work more effectively.

I now go to investigate second swarm - the one I was called about an hour or so earlier that afternoon.
Now I had no more boxes - what to do.

I head back to farm house and search around. The brother-in-law had two Langstroth NUCs which would have work wonderfully - but the previous weekend we had due to a hive with several queen cells developing had placed a few frames of brood that had queen cells on them into each NUC boxes. So they were out for today's use. I finally grab a simple large plastic storage container and lid - then headed back to other side of farm.

The large swarm was settling in nicely into its new home. Much calmer now, as I was able to lift a few top bars to check out what was happening inside and bees didn't attack me at all - even pushed a few bees around to reorganize the top bars more effectively.

The top bars seems to not fit the medium-sized hive I brought with me - but later realize it was the bit of ply under the top bars protruding too far and touching the sides of the box - my pocket knife quickly solved that issue with a precise trim.

The small swarm was quickly shaken into the plastic box with a whack on the fence post about half way up and with the fence post leaning over - the bees dropped straight into the storage box - but it wouldn't do for a long term holding area due to evening heat of 32+ degrees and no ventilation holes. What to do -----

So I take off the access panel of the bee vacuum I had also brought from home and after tapping the plastic storage box on ground to concentrate the bees in a corner of the storage  box - then I poured them into the back of the bee vacuum. Then replace the access panel. Too easy, if a bit of fussing around - still it got done. But unavoidably a few hundred bees are still flying about that didn't make it in the shake with the queen and were later found clinging to the outside of the bee vacuum - indicating the queen was more likely to be in the holding area.

I finally get the camera out and take a few photos - reminding my self to get camera out from the start of the swarm capture process next time. I blame it on "buck fever" - man I was keen to get those swarms - and it was sooooo much fun!!! I was giddely giggling to myself the whole time with the exciting time I was having messing about with the bees!

I left the large swarm at the farm (hoping they haven't taken off by Sunday when I am back at the farm for the kitchen cupboard hive transfer). I robbed a comb of honey from the kitchen cupboard hive to give the large swarm some food an incentive to stay in their new home.

I brought the small swarm back home to my place to transfer from bee vacuum into the second medium-sized hive I had left at home. I fluffed around a fair bit transferring bees due to my inexperience but eventually the small swarm was introduced to their new home for the next few months.

This is the small swarm back at my rural block the next day.The bee vac is open to let the last of bees I could shake out of it to make their way to the hive and the queen now inside the hive.

So far all good! 

Here is a bit of video I did after all the capturing etc.

Now bring on the kitchen cupboard hive transfer! Got a mate, Andrew, coming to help me out with vacuuming bees and transferring comb - help with filming too.