Good one @busso 
Iâll try to control myselfâŚ
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Hello Adam,
That is quite the story
In your graph image, what does the green line represent?
Best swarm capture storyâŚ
My newbee neighborâs bees swarmed and were pretty high up in a tree, a good reach from the top of the ladder.
I put on my half suit and zipped up the widebrimmed hood before I went up the ladder with my empty box and clippers. I could not see what I was doing because of the hood and the dense branches, so, of course I unzipped the hood 
I reached up, above my head, put the box under the heavy swarm and clippedâŚthe branch rebounded and slapped the swarm down on the top of my head; my suit was instantly filled with bees
My friend was screaming (in terror, for me), but I slowly came down the ladder, peeled off the half suit (over my head) and poured the bees into the box. I had most of them!
Youâll not believe it, but I had ZERO stings. Gentlest hive I ever hosted 
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It looks like an outside temperature (i.e. not in the hive) line. We get something similar from our Arnia system:
Thank you Dawn. The honey stores were easy to visualize 
We are pretty low-tech here at BeePeeking (as you might have guessed) 
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Wow- that could have ended very badly. I caught 14 swarms this season and didnât get a sting- generally I only wear a light veil or nothing. Iâve found swarms to be very docile and compliant. I had one I couldnât shake so I set up a little ramp and they promptly matched in all by themselves:
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Look at those bees go! How sweet is that? Jack, you truly are a bee whisperer 
As far as swarm captures, itâs the same for me, I normally just go get them without worry, as I too have never been stung doing a retrieval
But once they start doing the Nasonov booty lift-look out!
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Mine is getting ready to swarm as discovered by an inspection today. So, as a novice beekeeper I vascilated and fretted on what to do. I took off a queen cell about to emerge. Yup the other queen was there. There are more cells pupating and even after shaking off bees I couldnât tell the difference of some of the cells since there was a lack of conformity. So I called an experienced beek to have a hands on teaching experience. However. I had 2 frames the bees disliked so I replaced them with store bought ones. Iâm ready with brood boxes, frames, tops and waxed frames for a split. Iâm nervous cus I really donât want to lose bees. The mentor comes Sunday! 
I should have taken photos!
Well done Martha, thereâs no substitute for hands-on mentoring. Letâs hope they stay put until Sunday.
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I made 2 calls and both called me back and they might both come together to meet each other. 
Is that the queen on the cardboard? There is a really dark bee to the right of the cardboard.
Itâs a wonder they even made it to the hive, they looked so tyred!
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though it may seem extreme- I think the Taranov split method may be a good last minute option if your hive is about to swarm imminently. It mimics a natural swarm and the bees behave exactly as if they had swarmed. Itâs always better to be ahead of the game- and to have undertaken swarm management before queen cells are being made- but if you get to that stage where a swarm is likely to issue at any moment- i think the Taranov is a good option. Itâs actually easier than it looks.
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Is that the video recently posted in Dawns hypothetical string? I understood all except one thing and it was a biggie for me. Once he shook all bees off the frames and onto a sheet and the bees marched into a brood box, where did he put the new brood box?
Hi Martha, the new box is full of young bees and the queen, not foragers so it can be placed anywhere. All the foragers flew back to the original box and will tend the brood. After watching several videos Iâm keen on doing this next Spring.
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Thanks! And thanks for understanding my Iâll written sentence which Iâve efited. I am considering doing this as well.
My hive looked like it was going to swarm so I sent a video to my beek friends and one showed up in 15 minutes. I have a new hive temporarily off site until the new queen emerges and mates. I had so much brood, drones and another queen cell in 4 days ( not sure I caught it Friday). Fingers crossed my Queen is successful at all which is desired to happen. I put 4 frames of capped brood with a queen, 1 of drones, 1 pollen and honey and 2 new frames. Abraham checked some drones for veroa and he said he didnât spot any. The new hive is at the other mentors house! Lol! How cool is that?
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Thatâs VERY cool Martha 
Being at the start of spring, youâll be able to make quite a few colonies if you can hold off on thinking about honey for a few months. You can let it snowball.
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Iâm going no more than 3 hives and if it gets crazy Iâll downsize to 2. I live in a neighborhood, though on a half acre I donât want trouble.
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3 is a good number. If you have to do splits to prevent swarming, itâs always worth remembering that you can easily sell colonies.
Even if you had 2 strong colonies, with a third as backup.
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