First pics are of a young colony between floor joists in an apartment complex.
Now for the Whole Foods swarm. Got a call Friday morning from Whole Foods about a swarm on a cypress tree in their parking lot. About three handfulls of bees were on the tree acting a lil pissy.
The employees and manager start answering my questions and come to find out an employee sprayed them with heavy sugar syrup the day before and dumped them in a bucket (death trap) that was moved to a lot, next to a willow tree approx 150 yards from the tree.
Mgr says employee (with good intentions) swears she got the queen (drone) in the bucket.
I retrieve bucket of much too sticky bees and set up a deep on my tailgate to which I precede to dump sticky bees with hidden surprises (gravel, mud & mulch).
Once surprises were discovered, I elected to just dump and sort bees from dirt/gravel/mulch from tailgate.
I decided the bees needed a good bath of water from a spray bottle to dilute the stickyness. After being washed down and drying commenced, the bees started fanning and entering the deep with the caged queen I caught off the tree.
All this crapola took an hour and 15 minutes. I set the box next to the tree and secured the area.
Came back two hours later in a downpour and sealed the entrance and took the bees.
I took these all the way to Bud's and now they are back home with me.
Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/112138792165178452970/April232010# (http://picasaweb.google.com/112138792165178452970/April232010#)
...JP
love the barricade :-D
you guys have a whole grocery store thing going on, don't you?
Another exceptional event huh,What i'd like to know tho-it seems u've got a special touch for catching her majesty,Been noticing that each time whether cut-out or swarm u've been catching her in trap.
Is this mainly due to ur vast experience or just by watching the action of bees to have an indication where she is??Have u ever had a situation where u located her and she takes a flight b4 being trapped?? :-\
Jahjude, I have had a few queens take flight that I know of and land close by. They usually don't go very far from where the colony is. I don't worry when she flies off. I just continue doing whatever it is I'm doing at the moment. The bees will tell me where she is as a cluster grows.
...JP
You save the day once again JP!! It never seizes to amaze me how you handle these unusual situations and come out smelling like roses.
Your experience shines through.
Quote from: JP on April 27, 2010, 11:01:33 AM
Jahjude, I have had a few queens take flight that I know of and land close by. They usually don't go very far from where the colony is. I don't worry when she flies off. I just continue doing whatever it is I'm doing at the moment. The bees will tell me where she is as a cluster grows.
...JP
Ok kool will bare that in mind,presently seeing a queen take flight is one of my greatest fears especially while doing a cut-out.
Havnt been able to locate hairclip queen traps locally so trying to improvise by using medium size "hair rollers" and capping both ends :-D I'm thinking these should work just as well,can hardly wait to have an initial test.
I had the great pleasure of meeting those very ame bees this weekend. Better keep a close eye on them JP, I think I saw one of them wink at me :-D
Scott
Hey Scott, she was probably just blinkin' from the sunshine bouncin' off that smooth noggin' of yours! ;)
Hey, bringin' that swarm to Bud's was a great thing. He's got a huge flow going on and I put them right next to the bait hive that swarmed, got extras from them and Bailey's cut out bees liked my queen too.
Will probably need another super real soon! Friends with benefits, gotta love 'em! :-D
...JP