Swarm Update 3/4/08

On Tuesday morning I ran out to the back deck, and saw that the swarm cluster was still high in the old oak.  I had to drive my daughter to the airport that morning, so I would need to leave my observations for a while.  I left the house around 11:00 am, returned at approx 1:30 pm.  There were no bees in the old oak.  They had left.  I went outdoors to do some work approx. 2:30pm and could hear a loud hum again.  Looking towards the Southwest, I could see the cluster swarming again...WOW, amazing yet again!  They looked as if they were aimlessly flying, after al that chaos, the settled on a short scrub oak on my lower property.  I set the hive body next to the oak hoping they would enter, but they remained on that little oak.  I attempted that late afternoon to hive them after spraying them with sugar syrup.  It had been a day since they swarmed and I figured they might be hungry.  The syrup did keep them occupied.  I was not successful in trapping them. Leaving it up to fate, nature & the Universe, I left them alone...