Received a call that a bee swarm had attached itself to a tree in the back yard and they would like to have it removed. I asked how long it has been there and roughly how big it is and was told that it had been there about 2-3 weeks and it is about half a meter high. It was not too high up the tree and the guy said he is a builder and can easily rig up some scaffolding if needed. Sounded like an easy enough removal - well was I in for a surpise!  Arrived there early afternoon set to get the job over and done with in 2 hours. As you can see from the photo, the swarm must have been there a lot longer than 3 weeks and the colony was huge.

By close of day I managed to peel off only about a third of the combs and set up some 4 frames with brood attached with rubber bands as well as use the beevac to dump some bees in with the brood. At this stage there was no sign of the queen.

Came back the next day to finish the job ending up with 2 x 8 frame boxes of brood, some honey and pollen comb and filled up with empty drawn combs. Left the boxes on the ground under the tree to settle in for a few days and then relocated.