Debbie called me this morning from Arbor Farms Nursery where she works and asked if I knew of someone who would capture a swarm of bees. I gave her the name of a neighbor who I knew had been looking for a swarm. After I hung up I remembered that my hive appears to have died out and I was going to buy a new colony of bees next spring.
So I called back to the nursery and Phillipa answered the phone. I told her Deb had called me about a bee swarm and if she hadn’t called someone else yet, I’d come and get it. Phillipa said the bees were at her house and told me to go ahead and get them.
I studied up how to capture a swarm in “Beekeeping for Dummies” and headed out with a cardboard box and my bee veil.
When I got to Phillipa’s the size of the swarm was daunting.
My conscience was clear and my heart was pure, so I proceeded with confidence. I held the open box underneath the swarm and grasped the topmost branch the swarm was hanging from and gave it a sharp yank downward into the box.
Most of the bees fell off into the box and I quickly taped it shut. “Beekeeping for Dummies” suggested this method of dislodging the bees might test the bees’ patience. That certainly seemed to be the case, the angry hum coming from the box was quite threatening. But I was more afraid of Phillipa’s wrath if I had lopped the entire branch out of her spruce tree than I was of the bees, so I was content.
“Beekeeping for Dummies” said to hurry home with your captured swarm because the bees will get hot in the closed up box. Sure enough, when I got home 20 minutes or so later the box was warm to the touch.
I took the the box o’ bees out to my hive, and put an old sheet up to the hive entrance to give the bees a path to the hive. Then I peeled the tape off the box and the bees started pouring out.
I picked up the box and gave it a shake to get all the bees out, and sure enough they streamed up the sheet and into the hive.
That’s a 20 second video clip, but it took about 4 minutes for all the bees to stream into the hive. Owen watched these proceedings from the safety of the tall grass.
A lot of the bees started flying around in front of the hive, doing their dance which orients them to their new home. While I was watching all of this, I noticed a few bees were getting interested in me.
Remembering all the pent up anger I heard from the box on the way home, I figured it was time to clear out. It wasn’t until I got back in the house and felt an ominous tickling on my inner thigh that it occurred to me that some of the bees may have climbed up the inside of my pant legs as well. Fortunately, that bee and I parted company with no harm to either of us.
I checked on them a few hours later and they are as busy as, well, bees, zooming in and out of the hive. So far it appears their new home is to their liking.
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