This spring I had the opportunity to catch two swarms, both of were located just outside of Columbus Grove. These two swarm captures added two beehives to my apiary. It is not always easy to catch swarms, and last year when I tried I was unsuccessful, basically the bees flew away again. But this year I was able to catch them and they stayed in their new hives and are now starting to thrive. I found out about both swarms through phone calls. Both times were about swarms located in trees, so I loaded up a small hive box with frames along with the rest of my gear, and went to go catch them.
When I got to the location, I put up a ladder to get high enough to reach the bees. Thankfully both swarms were low enough that I was able to collect them. The first swarm was wrapped around the trunk of a tree while the second one was on an outside branch. To collect them, I sort of scooped the bees onto an empty frame and shook them into the box. Once the majority of the bees were out of the tree and in the box they fanned to let any other bees that are flying know that the queen was in the box and that it was home. Both times I allowed the boxes to sit at the current swarm site for a few hours so any stragglers could get in. After that I closed the box up and moved them to the bee yard where they now reside.