Ruth's dad is a beekeeper in his spare time; while he was at work the other day, the bees from one of the hives decided to swarm. When this happens, they hover in a great big cloud above the hive for a while, then they choose a nearby tree as their new home. They hang off each other by the hundreds, with their new queen in the middle. 
Then the beekeeper's pleasant task is to place an open hive box underneath them and shake the branch:)
The idea is that the queen and the swarm will fall into the box and decide to live there instead of on the tree. Except this time, the beekeeper wasn't there. So I did it.
It's easier than it looks, because the bee mass is so heavy that it falls off the branch easily; also, the bees in a swarm are so focused on protecting the queen that (if the drop is successful) they don't bother with stinging you so much as following the queen down into the box. At any rate, we had no problems - it was all over quickly, and there's now a productive new hive on the Coffey property.
Then the beekeeper's pleasant task is to place an open hive box underneath them and shake the branch:)The idea is that the queen and the swarm will fall into the box and decide to live there instead of on the tree. Except this time, the beekeeper wasn't there. So I did it.
It's easier than it looks, because the bee mass is so heavy that it falls off the branch easily; also, the bees in a swarm are so focused on protecting the queen that (if the drop is successful) they don't bother with stinging you so much as following the queen down into the box. At any rate, we had no problems - it was all over quickly, and there's now a productive new hive on the Coffey property.
5 comments:
Congratulations on your successful swarm management! I wish our recent first experience with swarming bees had gone that smoothly - it worked out OK in the end, but we obviously haven't got 'the knack' like you!
You have more balls than a brass monkey!! Taking on a herd of bees like that!!
Thanks moonroot! Sorry to hear about your struggles. Luck of the draw - our bees read the right books;)
that sounds so scary - even if you say it was easy to do.... eeek!
Neat, Sean!
Did the hive swarm because there were two queens?
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