Recently, my son-in-law informed me we had a swarm of bees near our bee yard at our farm hanging from a low branch. My son and I jumped into our bee suits and went to work, quick, before they could fly off somewhere. 

We placed a hive box under them. I took a big stick and smacked the branch–hard. The bees fell in a heap on the box. We let them rest about a half hour. They settled in nicely. I couldn’t wait until dark to put tape over the entrance because I had an appointment. 

After about an hour we  put the lid on the hive and added some sugar water in a feeder, intending to move them to the bee yard the next day.

When my son checked them the next day, he moved the hive to a prepared place in the bee yard. He took the tape off the entrance and left.

The next day we went out to check on them. They had decided to move on. Gone!

All is not lost, however. When they swarm they leave half the bees in the original hive along with several queen cells. In a few days the first queen will hatch, tear open all the other queen cells to kill her rivals, and take a mating flight. She’ll come back to the old hive and perform her duty of laying thousands of eggs a day–and life goes on!

P.S. After a few days we found no eggs and no queen so I had to buy a new queen at the bee store. She comes with a few attendants in a small box with screen on two sides and a sugar plug in one end. We placed her in the hive. The bees will eat the sugar and in three days she should be out to take a mating flight. In 10 days, if her flight was successful, we should find eggs in cells. Now we wait until May 30.