i walked into my backyard and i was talking on my cel phone...about 10 feet away i saw a few bees flying about...as my conversation continued i watched as a drone mounted a queen! it was alomst like slow motion! they hovered about 10 feet above the ground for a few seconds and then over my head for what seemed like another 5 seconds....they then flew off for what i'm guessing was a little more privacy. wow...i never thought i would see that happen!
Good catch Film!!!
Wondering if you have ever stood amongst a swarm as it does a mass Exodus from the hive and tens of thousands of bees circle around you about 30 foot round and 30 foot high until they finally find a place to land.
I have had that experience about a dozen times and every time the sound of the buzzing drowns out everything else around and is truly amazing to be a part of.
My mating experience (briefly noted on National Public Radio was when I released a observation hive grown queen for mating and she returned to the hive, but the wind blew her into a strip of sticky fly tape - it was a terribly sad thing, I squished (squooshed?) rather than have her torn to pieces in the attempts of rescuing from the glue strip. Irony, as I explained the story to NPR I was opening a hive and got stung - lol.
Glad you saw the mating ritual, the drone definitely gets the raw end of that stick (literally) but his (their) legacy lives on and on.
no swarm experience yet...i am looking forward to it but i also hope it never happens, if you know what i mean. i hear it's an amazing act of nature to see.
filmmlif,
I've been swamped with bee calls the past 10 days.
If your interested in the experience of swarm capture, send me a PM
with your contact info and you're welcome to come along next time I
get a call.
I got a nice one this evening in North Dallas.
About the size of a football on a small tree only four feet from the ground.
Four snips with my pole type tree shears and they were in the bucket 8)
I wish they were all that easy, I spent more time answering questions
from the home owner than working to get the bees.
Today made up for yesterday when I went on three calls only to find
the bees gone by the time I arrived :cry:
Now, through church and friends I've gotten probably 3 calls in the past 2 months. (That's alot for me.) None of which are swarms, all established hives and only one I agreed to take (wrote about it in a topic).
I hope I some day get to see a mating flight, with my new queens hatching soon I just might but I dout it ......
I'm waiting on swarm calls myself - I need bees. Being the Number One Beekeeping Idiot (a search term spotted in Goooooogle by Robo - thanks Robo - lol) site in the World makes me long for my hives to be back in the honey making business... Good luck everyone.