One of the things you have to deal with as a beekeeper is what to do when one of your hives swarm. Swarming is a natural behavior for honeybees as this is how they reproduce their colony to form additional colonies elsewhere. Usually about 1/2 of the bees in the hive will set out with their queen to setup a new colony of honeybees someplace else. During their journey they may stop to rest on a tree branch high up in a tree.
The way this swarm catcher works is to block the queen the swarm catcher box and the bees that accompany her will stay with her in the box.
The above video shows the swarm catcher installed on the hive. Simply remove the entrance reducer and slide the swarm catcher in it’s place. As you can see, the worker bees will come and go normally.
When you see the box is full of bees, this means that they have swarmed. You can slide the entrance closed and move the box to a new hive and install the bees just as you would a package of bees except that since they are bringing their own queen, you done have to worry about introducing a new queen.
I began to sell these Swarm Catchers in 2025. Follow the link below for information on ordering one for your apiary.
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