Swarm Season......It's Here!

Late yesterday afternoon we were called for a swarm. When we got there we were told that they had been here for two days and that it had originally covered from the corner to the end of the top of that door below. A couple of people said they flew off and someone else said, "someone sprayed them with WD-40". The poor girls on the outside suffered and died :( I do wish people would have some compassion on living things! I'm guilty of not educating myself on things and being critical of things I don't know about or understand. I'm working on that and I hope others will join me :)
PLEASE....PLEASE don't spray honeybees with ANYTHING, (unless you are trying to catch them, then spray them with warm honey or sugar water). Have a heart people! This pic below broke mine! These bees were doing nothing but stopping over to rest before moving on to a new home. They harmed no one and never intended too.
While the bee vac was being set up for me (the electric outlet was a mile away) ;) I had the bright idea that maybe if I sprayed some sugar water on the frames and up inside the box that maybe...just maybe they would march in eazy peazy style for me ;) I even tried laying down a white sheet for them (so they wouldn't go underneath the box really) ;) But the wind was so bad and boy was it getting cold!

WOW! I was getting really excited by now!

But, it didn't work....the other girls couldn't hear because of all the wind ;) Anyway......the vac came up and on, so I started vacuuming those sweet babies up. The suction is so low it took forever to get them through the hose. It sure would've been so much easier on them if they had've marched on into the box, but they wouldn't listen to me ;)



Boy! They were packed in there!
More vacuuming
And finally my co-workers ;) said it was time to shut the vac off and head home. We left the box hoping they would go inside before dark then we could seal them up before daybreak and join them with the ones we took home. (I hope that made sense)Well, this morning once I got the stragglers home, I joined them with the rest of the girls and figured while I had them open I would take a quick peek to see if I could find the little queen. Can you see her?
She's a young queen and from the looks of her (to me) this will be her first colony. I feel (and this is just my opinion) that the hive they came from, split once already....she doesn't look like the mother queen to me....what do you think????
She is bee-u-ti-ful in every way!

Until next time.....

BEE ON GUARD! ;)

Julie

The Log Hive

I suppose a woodpecker is responsible for this, after all, what other explanation could there *bee*? ;/ I wonder what happened when it kept on knocking? Did the bees come out to defend their home?
We'll have to coax them out and into a new home soon........

Here below is the entrance to the hive......
Bizzy girls!

Bringing in pollen......




My husband got a package today and Honeybee decided she liked the way the box fit.....after all there's a bee suit inside ;)
Until Next Time....
BEE COMFORTABLE!

Julie

Update On Hive Split

I checked in on the Nuc that me and my husband split five days ago. The girls have pulled out queen cells galore! Some of them are already sealed. They have been *bizzy* ;)

They are in a super/nuc. This is one my Niece Hannah painted two years ago! My goodness! Time has flown!

The girls are in a wonderful area! Some of the trees have already bloomed and sprouting out with seeds! There's still a lot more waiting to bloom!
We were hoping that we'd be able to get more splits, but things don't always happen the way we want them to. Some of our hives, we had to put back into nucs from their larger boxes due to decreased size of the hive.
It's good to keep the girls tight so they can fight off the hive beetles, wax moths, wasps, etc. Poor girls, they have so much to do and worry about!

Until Next Time.......
BEE BIZZY!
Julie