Honey Bee Keeping and other pollinators

[blissful]

Bee Check on sunday afternoon, added supers and everything looked good we followed up with lemonade and cake.

This morning the neighbor sighted a SWARM 20 feet from the east bank of hives in a tree so it could be from any of the hives. If they get too crowded or they don't like their digs. Mr bliss is on his way home from grocery shopping. It's very exciting....I hope we can reclaim them. Pictures to follow once we get our wits about us.

We have great neighbors, zach's mom sighted them and zach's dad came over to let us know! How fun or exciting or...I'll let you know how it ends.

 

[blissful]

sorry about them being turned one quarter to the right.

Both bee keepers are out there. Plan: put a nucleus box under the hive, clip the branch (with permission from neighbor), drop the bees into the box.

 

[blissful]

They ended up being our friend's bees (he bee keeps with us back there). He put out a new box, and they moved the bees on frames in the nuc box, to the new hive. YAY, it was awesome. The old box that the bees swarmed away from, had swarm cells in it, to grow a new queen with some workers. When one hatches, it will fight and kill any other queens, then she will go on a mating flight, and then start laying eggs for more workers. From beginning to end, sighting swarm to new hive, 2 hours 30 minutes. So fun. Our friend did a great job with mr bliss getting it done! Bee Happy.

 

[larry_stewart]

This thread is like a soap opera. I keep checking back to see what happens next! Very interesting.

 

[blissful]

This thread is like a soap opera. I keep checking back to see what happens next! Very interesting.

Mr bliss took off shopping this morning, so I'm calling him (he can't answer when driving), so I call him 3 times so he knows it is important. Tell him about the bees. Send pictures to our friend we keep bees with and his dad. Thank his mother for spotting the swarm.
It was just by chance that our friend's work let him off early due to an electrical outage, or he wouldn't have been there for his bees.
It was a very exciting morning! Very fun. The life of Bees is so interesting.

The guys were soaked with sweat wearing the bee suits ...I mean soaking wet. It was the only disgusting part of it. (and honestly it wasn't that gross)

There was a swarm trap we hung in a tree 100-200 feet away, which the bees would have eventually found, but we found them first. I'll tell you between the price of potatoes and bees, this is living the life! lol

 

[GotGarlic]

So cool! DH was outside in the garden when our bees swarmed the first time. They started flying in a huge circle around the bay tree finally landed in a swarm in our neighbor's tree. We weren't experienced in catching them yet, so we called a master gardener friend who is also a beekeeper and he came and got them.

 

[larry_stewart]

I actually took a class in college ( 100 years ago) about the sociology of bees. It was really interesting (even though I dont remember anything, but I do remember liking it very much).