swarm-list Mailing List: Re: Swarm in Berkeley on wood side Rd. Accessible but interesting

[Gerald Przybylski (gtp000000]

    sung might search and search until he found the queen.  then let
    pheromones draw the rest of the bees into the catch box

On 6/23/26 11:11 AM, The Bay Architects via swarm-list wrote:

Swarm eventually caught after much work and patience. Bees were on the side trunk of an Hawaian fern. On arrival in afternoon, brushed bees into a box. On return at 7PM, they had all gone back onto trunk and embedded themselves into the folds and crevices of dead fronds. With Owner's permission, I pulled off the dead 4" to 6" fronds and removed cotton like material in order to eliminate queen's phermons from the trunk. They kept returning and I kept brushing till very little amount remained on trunk. I left for an hour's walk in the neighborhood and returned to find them all settled in. Double wrapped in bedsheet and brought home.

Lesson; get rid of the mass of dead fronds from the beginning.

JIm