...but it was mine!
Papa Bear called and said he was picking me up, something was happening in the apiary. When we arrived at the bee yard there were thousands of bees in the air. I told him our hive was swarming but to just watch and we'd see where they were going as I had read they do not go far to begin with. I had seen 3 queen cells in the main hive Saturday and thought I had a few more days until they emerged to give me time to set up another nuc...WRONG!
Sure enough they landed on a limb of a fallen tree from the last storm about 50 feet from their hive . I went back to the house for a bee suit and sent Papa Bear after a bucket with a lid.
Every time I shook the limb I would get a bunch of bees but hundreds would fly back into the air. By the time I would get that bucket load shook out into the new hive and go back to the limb they would be settled again.
Now that is a bucket of bees! Not to mention they were all over me!
I think I made four trips to shake another bucket into the hive.
I am trying to get the last of the bunch here. I tried to cut the branch off with some loppers but it was so dry it snapped and fell before I could catch it and a pile of bees hit the ground and the remainder took to flight again. I am praying the entire time that I had already gotten the queen.
They buzzed angrily for some time after I got them tucked in and fed so I was a little worried I had lost the queen but after a couple of hours they seem to be settled in.
What a day!...I am so thankful Papa Bear saw this going on so we could capture the swarm, even if it was ours! We had no guarantee they would have went into one of our traps.
Mama Bears stings for the day 0
Papa Bear 6...that man has got to learn to suit up!
Papa Bear was riding around the property testing out the truck after repairing the radiator.
He called me to say that there were a few bees around the SE trap!
A few minutes later he called to tell me there were a few bees checking out the SW trap. I wanted to see! Papa Bear picked me and the grandson up. We checked all the traps and all five of the traps we have up had some activity around them. I do hope the bees liked the traps and move in this week. How exciting! It will be awesome if we are outside and be able to see a swarm go into one of them.
I will be getting ready just in case and setting up more brood boxes in the apiary today.
Yesterday when Papa Bear was cutting the weeds grass outside the bee yard he noticed some activity at one of our swarm traps.
Rather than use the hole in the bottom they were going in and out of the gap that didn't quite pull to when we screwed the pots together. We decided to give them another day and then get them tonight.
We took two frames out of the center of a brood box and shook the bee's in. They were a little angry so I calmed them with some smoke.
The trap felt really light when I took it down from the post so I was surprised to see this many bees...Needless to say we were thrilled!
In just the day or two they were in the trap, they had built several small combs. These were a few of the bees that didn't want to leave the comb until I tapped them hard on the top of the frames. We didn't get a picture but I cut the comb loose and rubber banded it to an empty frame and put it in the center of the brood box to encourage them to stay.
This is a beautiful sight to see! I managed to shake out almost all of the bees into the hive. There was about 5 or 6 still crawling around inside the top of the trap so we left it propped in front of the hive. I'll fetch it early in the morning as it has some comb scraps with a little honey. I don't want to take a chance on robbers. I put an entrance reducer and will observe them tomorrow to see if a robber screen is needed. I would not think so as there is nothing in there but the 3 small combs but this really is my first rodeo!
Macho Man Papa Bear didn't wear his bee suit again and got two stings in the tummy... I wonder how many stings it is going to take before he decides to wear it?
