swarms are wonderful. generally they're very good natured and easy to catch. you can just drop them into a cardboard box with a hole and they're happy, but it's best to put them into something more or less permanent as soon as possible because they'll start drawing comb immediately.
easy to find out about if you're interested in keeping bees. just tell your fire department, police, and local school district that you'll take their swarms, and your telephone will not stop ringing all spring.
i'm old enough to remember when patriotism meant not trying to overthrow the government.
So tell me, why do they even sell "bee outfits" with all the protective stuff? I would have thought that these bees would be stinging the bejeezus out of you, what with all the shaking and pushing and harassing them off the branch and into the hive ....
Read up on your Kipling ("Dymchurch Flit" for a start) about Hobden's son they call the "Bee Boy" and you'll know why I'm asking!
I just finished a story for my newspaper about beekeeping and bee swarms the reason they are docile when swarming is the fact that before they leave the overcrowded hive and fly off to establish a new one with about half of the original mob is because they gorge themselves with honey.. this makes them fat and happy they are concentrating on setting up a new house and unless you really provoke them they will leave you alone if you have a swarm then call your local agricultural extension office and they will put you in contact with a beekeeper who can come out and will gladly take the little rascals...……..
So tell me, why do they even sell "bee outfits" with all the protective stuff? I would have thought that these bees would be stinging the bejeezus out of you, what with all the shaking and pushing and harassing them off the branch and into the hive ....
Read up on your Kipling ("Dymchurch Flit" for a start) about Hobden's son they call the "Bee Boy" and you'll know why I'm asking!
Lannis
a beehive will vary in its moods with the weather and conditions. on a warm sunny day with all the old and irritable fielders out working, it will be calm and gentle. then touchy in late afternoon when they're back. if there's a honey flow, they'll ignore you. when the flow stops, they dont want you around.
the last half hour before sunset you can do no wrong. the fielders are fed and in for the night, the hive bees are fanning at the entrance to evaporate the nectar, the guards are relaxed and having a beer, or whatever it is that they do when the day is winding down. that's when you load em on a truck, or run a new queen in the entrance, or pop the lids to do a frame count for the customer, and so on. an hour later, they will murder you if you touch em.
swarms are generally happy, but a dry swarm that's been hanging too long will not appreciate being messed with. i used a bee suit if i was shaking bees for sale, because i would shake out 25 pounds of bees into a screened box, maybe 200 pounds at a time. you're in too much of a hurry doing that to be patient with them, so you suit up. and if i was filling baby nucs to raise queens, i always wore a suit, because i was dipping bees out of a box a quarter-pound at a time with a spam can, under red lights.
and lots of bee work is done at night, when they don't fly and don't like to be bothered. on nice days they're the angels of agriculture. at night or in the rain they turn into cockroaches that sting.
i'm old enough to remember when patriotism meant not trying to overthrow the government.
Kevin, Joy wants to know if the bees were happy and stayed in the box.....Years ago in one our old houses honey bees were seen getting in through a hole in the siding...They had a hive between floors.. At night I found where they were and pried up a floor board..The bees seemed calm or drugged? and Joy using a gloved hand scooped out the bees and honey comb... Lots of apple farmers around here ,they use bees for pollination..
61 hot rod A10, 89 Honda 650NT .On a bike you can out run the demons "I don't know what the world may need But a V8 engine is a good start for me Think I'll drive to find a place, to be surly" “
they were settled in and drawing comb yesterday evening. as soon as the queen starts laying its permanent, because the nurse bees will not leave the brood, period.
i mixed up a gallon of syrup for them. i used to buy corn syrup 1000 gallons at a time. but to mix up sucrose syrup for the baby nucs i would take a 55 gallon drum, put in 17 gallons of water, and then add 400 pounds of sugar. sucrose is the best feed, after honey.
getting bees out of a house is hard work and not really worth it to a beekeeper. my grandparents place had a colony over the side door in oklahoma for as long as i can remember. i'm sure it died out and other bees moved in a hundred times. they were always there.
i'm old enough to remember when patriotism meant not trying to overthrow the government.
Hi Stephen! Kevin mentioned they are Italian bees...It's my understanding there were no native honey bees in North America..They were brought over by Europeans to pollinate introduced fruit trees and plants...Native Indian folklore says when they saw a honey bee they new the White man was coming...
61 hot rod A10, 89 Honda 650NT .On a bike you can out run the demons "I don't know what the world may need But a V8 engine is a good start for me Think I'll drive to find a place, to be surly" “
