Welp, before I could do a follow-up hive inspection this month as planned, I discovered this (photo below) 😳.

We already learned that nature waits on no one, so I had to quickly suit up and get to work. I wasn’t at all prepared to catch a swarm, so I had to improvise.

I climbed a ladder and shook the dangling ball of bees into my makeshift swarm box. Yes, I did! And, I captured it all in the video below😝.

I left the box of bees beneath the tree overnight to disorient them in preparation for relocation into a hive box. The following morning, I dumped the ball of bees into one of my empty hive boxes. You can watch me relocate the bees in the video below👀.

I waited a few hours to allow the bees time to settle into their new location. When I returned to the new hive, they were doing orientation flights and had not returned to the branch where I’d found them. This was a good sign. Time will tell if this bee colony deems my empty hive box a suitable new home or chooses to swarm again to find a better home🫣. I hope they stay🖤.