Swarm Trap Cameras!!

[TheWaterbug]

The scouts are scouting! This could be a prelude to a move-in in the next day or two, or they could change their minds and go somewhere else:



The live stream is intermittent, and I'm not sure how to fix it. If anyone out there knows the YouTube API well enough to help, I'll buy you lots of beer!!

Swarm Trap Interior and Exterior at Painted Peacock Manor

 

[Mike A.]

I'd give it a bee thumb up if I were a bee.

Stream looked fine to me while I watched it. Wasn't expecting the sound. Kind of made me jump a little first time. lol

 

[garycrist]

We had a bad honey flow last year. Maybe better this year with 5 hives.

 

[TheWaterbug]

Prof. Tom Seeley or Cornell wrote the authoritative text on bee swarming behavior, and he says that when there are 50 - 100 scouts at the candidate site, that’s when they typically make the decision to move in. Mine looks it has twice that number today.

I also fixed the livestream so that it's 100x more reliable than it was 10 days ago. It's now more likely to be up than it is to be down.

 

[MrRobinHood]

 

[TheWaterbug]

LOL! Stealing this . . .

 

[TheWaterbug]

They're here!!!!!! edit: Ok, here's the permalink to the move-in event:

 

[garycrist]

I bet the rent will be sweet!
good show!

 

[TheWaterbug]

The Swarm Trap Cam stream is up for 2023, and I have scouts already!

Swarm Cam at Painted Peacock Manor

This camera is observing a "bait hive" or "swarm trap" in my backyard, hoping to entice a swarm of feral bees to move in.I have another BeeCam rotating amon...

www.youtube.com

If you want to bookmark the Live stream, copy that exact link above. You can't just click it and bookmark the result, because YouTube will immediately redirect you to the perma-link to the stream that will eventually be archived from right now, not the stream that will be Live when you click it.

I'm working on ways to make it more reliable, so that it's up 24/7, and I'm going to add the 2nd camera for inside/outside 2-Up View, and swap in my bigger Time-Lapse box, but I need to find and acquire a few more things before I can do that.

I didn't want to wait to get the stream up, because I'm already late! I caught a swarm last week in another deep box that I'd just left on my hive stand after a dead out last year. No LGO, no nothing. Just some comb, and a swarm moved in in late January. Strange times with the insane amount of rain we've had in Los Angeles this winter!

 

[trapper]

i love the bee cam i have 4 hives in ontario ca. yes last year was really bad for honey production less than 12 gallons total harvest. 3 years ago 15 hives 74 gallons. This is playing out to be a great year do to the heavy rain with more on the way. I am also putting my swarm boxes out this week. what cam are you using for the interior, i might try to put one in a swarm box

 

[CCTVCam]

Looks ok. The only thing I'd be wary of going after wild bees, is don't you have Africanised one's down there in California?

Your hobby could go from friend to Little Nicky very quickly:

 

[TheWaterbug]

i love the bee cam i have 4 hives in ontario ca. yes last year was really bad for honey production less than 12 gallons total harvest. 3 years ago 15 hives 74 gallons. This is playing out to be a great year do to the heavy rain with more on the way. I am also putting my swarm boxes out this week. what cam are you using for the interior, i might try to put one in a swarm box

I've got the beginnings of a write-up, here:

Live Swarm Trap Cameras from Painted Peacock Manor

It's not finished, but the parts about the interior (IP5M-B1186EW-28MM) and exterior cameras (IP5M-T1179EW-28MM) are correct.

 

[TheWaterbug]

Looks ok. The only thing I'd be wary of going after wild bees, is don't you have Africanised one's down there in California?

Your hobby could go from friend to Little Nicky very quickly:

Yeah, we definitely have Africanized bees from time to time. I requeen my colonies if they get nasty.

 

[TheWaterbug]

I didn’t even get a chance to warn everyone this year. After zero scouts for ~2 weeks, possibly because of our abnormally wet year, I went from first scout to move-in in less than 4 hours. Move-in starts in earnest at 2:16 PM on the embedded timestamp, or 2:49:13 YouTube time:



60x time lapse coming soon . . .

 

[TheWaterbug]

60x time lapse coming soon . . .