Found a swarm in the garden yesterday morning.  The bees had taken over a young sunflower and I honestly didn’t notice them until after I had watered the garden for several hours.  They were drenched and I feared many of the workers were lost, but in the end, they all survived!  I got an empty hive body prepared and headed out to the garden to convince them that they would be better off in their new home.  After cutting off the sunflower at it’s base, I was able to get about 75% of the bees into the new hive body and then over about 30 minutes I coaxed the rest of them towards the entrance with my hand.  They formed a line heading towards the entrance and eventually all ended up inside the new hive.

Believe it or not, there is a sunflower plant underneath this mass of bees.

The new hive body ready for new occupants.

After I got the majority of bees inside, the rest just knew what to do and followed a line into the entrance.

The swarm getting used to their new home.

30 minutes later and the entire swarm was in the hive!