Well, It's Happened Again!

[JimWWhite]

A week ago we had two bee swarms that Teresa managed to capture and we added our seventh and eighth hives. Today I had just sat down on my garden stool after planting a box of peppers. As I was taking a long swig of water something caught my eye down the tree line above one of the hives. A hanging swarm. This one was even bigger than the ones from last week. Here's a pic:

That's our lovely 7-year old Olivia Frances pointing to the hive. She's going to follow her MamMaw into beekeeping. She wants here own suit and veil. Seriously!

I went and got Teresa and while she suited up I found another empty hive body and enough frames with drawn out comb to fill it out, and everything else we needed for setting up a new hive. Like before we positioned the cart with the hive body on it right under the swarm and pulled the limb down until the swarm was partially inside the box. Then I cut the limb while Teresa held it and then she shook them off into the box. While she was cleaning up and spraying them down with sugar water I found two more concrete blocks and timbers to make a stand. Then she move hive #9 down to where I set up the stand and we placed the box on it and walked away.

I'm also happy to report the other two new hives we caught last week are thriving. I went out there yesterday afternoon when I got home and on both hives I saw forager bees coming and going. Lots of them. There was also a good indicator that on both hives about every fifth or sixth bee coming in was loaded down with yellow pollen bulging from their pollen sacks on their hind legs. This is supposed to mean there is a queen inside and she's laying new brood. At this rate we might finish the year with twelve to fifteen hives which would be doubling what we started the year with. Another $100 bill saved by not having to buy a package of bees and a mated queen. And as Marta would say: "And that's a very good thing."

 

[lesa]

Wow, Jim that is a lot of bees! We just split one of our hives, in hopes of avoiding that very sight... How lucky you have been to get them into a box. Beekeeping at its best! I will show Dh that pic in the morning. Really something!

 

[curly_kate]

That's a nice haul! We had a rough winter, so I hope DH can catch a couple swarms this summer.

 

[journey11]

Awesome. Looks like those shook off pretty easy.

 

[JimWWhite]

Hey, it wasn't me. The credit goes to Miss Teresa who is the family beekeeper. Me, I just lop off the branch, drop the loppers, and run for my life!!! Keep in mind when I was a kid we went everywhere in the summer barefooted. That meant a lot of times we'd go barefooted down the road with swollen feet from stepping on a bee. When I was a young boy the only thing that we had more fear of than a bee was a snake. Any kind of snake.

 

[ninnymary]

Jim, you keep finding so many bees that maybe you should go into the bee selling business!

Mary

 

[bj taylor]

so what are these bees doing while you're pulling the branch down & cutting the branch? what do they do when the branch thuds into that box? aren't they temperamental when they swarm like that? do they just hang together in that glob after being dumped in that box? the whole thing is amazing! y'all are going to be swimming in honey

 

[journey11]

BJ, they are their most docile when they are swarming because their bellies are full of honey and they have no hive to protect. Now in the fall, sitting on a full box of honey stored for winter, that is when they are at their most tempermental. Or if their hive is being robbed or they are bothered by ants or skunks at night, etc.

Jim, I have never really been afraid of snakes, but you should have seen me nearly fall out of my computer chair the other day when I glanced over at one of my daughter's fake rubber snakes lying there unexpectedly. I forgot she had those!

I was never afraid of bees either, until I developed an allergy to them. Bums me out. I always thought it would be so cool (and much cooler) to work them in normal clothes with only a veil, but now I have to wear a full suit. I was stung four times the first year I had my bees and nothing happened then.

 

[so lucky]

So when you need to harvest the honey, that's when the bees are most agressive? Is that when most people get stung? Journey11, do you suppose your allergy developed from the number of stings you received?

 

[JimWWhite]

So when you need to harvest the honey, that's when the bees are most agressive? Is that when most people get stung? Journey11, do you suppose your allergy developed from the number of stings you received?

Now, normally they would be aggressive but an experienced beekeeper would get out their smoker and smoke 'em down good. Then they're too busy gorging themselves with honey because they think a forest fire is coming and they have to load up in a hurry because they may be moving out really quick. It's kind of like Thanksgiving afternoon at about 4:00 when all the bees are in the hive laying around going "Why did I eat all that?" When they're like that they don't want to fight anyone. Just turn on the TV and let's see how Dallas is doing...