TexasBeeSam · Texas, US · Swarms · Jun 22, 2026

Swarm about 30 feet up an oak — bucket-on-a-pole limits, or do I just walk away?

Got a call about a swarm in a live oak, nice volleyball-size cluster but it's a solid 10 meters up on a limb I can't ladder to safely. I've done the bucket-taped-to-a-painters-pole trick plenty of times up to maybe 5-6 m: bucket under the cluster, sharp bump on the branch, lid on, done. At 30 feet though the physics get ugly. Fully extended pole plus a bucket full of bees is heavy and wobbly, and half the cluster misses the bucket anyway. I'm debating a bait hive with lemongrass oil at the base instead and just letting the scouts find it. Free bees are nice but not broken-collarbone nice. Where's everyone's personal cutoff height? Texas, so this is probably a secondary swarm this late.

#swarm-catch#bait-hive#safety

▲ 13 votes 💬 4 replies ✅ Solved

4 replies

AbejaMiguel · Jun 22, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer

My cutoff is whatever I can reach with both boots on the ground, so about 7 m with my longest pole. Above that: bait hive at head height on the same tree or nearby, old dark comb plus a few drops of lemongrass, entrance about 40 cm² if you can manage it. Swarms usually pick a cavity within a day or three. You lose maybe a third of them to somewhere else, and zero collarbones. No swarm is worth a fall.

KiwiBeek · Jun 23, 2026

Mid-winter here in Wellington so I'm living vicariously through you lot. Agree with AbejaMiguel — mate of mine came off a ladder at 4 m chasing a cast swarm and spent our whole spring in a moon boot. The bait box catches bees while you drink coffee.

SourwoodGrace · Jun 23, 2026

The other thing at that height — even if you nail the bump, if the queen falls outside the bucket the whole cluster just re-forms on the branch and you get to do it again, 30 feet up, with annoyed bees. Bait hive.

TexasBeeSam · Jun 24, 2026

Bait hive it was. Nuc box with old comb and lemongrass on a fence post 40 yards away, and the scouts were all over it by the next afternoon. Whole swarm marched in on day two. Easiest 'catch' I've ever done.

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