from good to almost good, a tale of two swarms.

[JP]

Two days ago a lady called me to say that her neighbor's gutter man saw a bunch of bees fall from her tree onto the sidewalk. I told her to make sure no one sprays them I'm on my way. She said that she had called her exterminating company to spray them but that her son had insisted that she call a beekeeper. I immediately like this guy and would vote for him for president. Anyway, she said she would tell her exterminator not to come, which she did. I arrived and found bees covering a section of the sidewalk, and saw bees balling the queen. I had a swarm trap, and preceded to put handfuls of bees into the trap, carefully looking for the queen. I would pull the bees off of the queen and they would be right back on her. After a little tug of war, I spotted her and placed her in the trap, hung the trap on a nearby tree limb and went on my way. Went back at dark and the bees were in the trap. I set the bees up in a deep that night. 

Fast forward to this evening. A guy calls me, says he had bees show up today, and that they are going in and out of a hole in the brick exterior, above a window. I will continue this tale tomorrow, probably late in the evening, for I have my hands full tomorow. Tonite I go to sleep with swollen fingers, from getting stung, burning around the eyes from bee-quick, which I believe is a fantastic product, and a box and a swarm trap on my trailer that has 15,000 bees, which I will combine with another hive in the morning, before I work on a lift, 32' up, to do bee proofing on a bldg that has had bees at least 7 different times. Good nite.

[JP]

2nd swarm call continued.

So, the second call was from a man that said bees were going in and out of the brick exterior by a window. Told him I would be there within 2hrs. An hr after the first call he calls to tell me there is a large ball of bees hanging from the corner of the window. I go over with a swarm trap and grab handfuls of bees and place them in the trap. Problem is that the queen had already entered the wall and was not coming out. Guy said over the phone that the interior wall was paneling, no problem right? Well, behind the paneling is plywood, then the blackboard. Everywhere we opened there were always more bees. I had a cardboard box in the room with me with pheremone. After 3 and a half hrs I had about 5lbs of bees in the box and still more in the wall. This swarm was huge and had been there only about 4hrs. At first the bees were cool and I could handle them barehanded but as the evening progressed, I wound up with gloves and a bee suit on. Got stung on the hands about 5 times before I had had enough. Fischer's bee quick helped me to usher the bees where I wanted them to go. Set the bees up this am. Never actually saw the queen but may have got her in the box, but I don't think so. Combined this hive with a weak one. All seems well. This swarm call was very challenging, and time consuming. Never expect them to be easy and you won't be disapointed. My wife says yeah, right, its an easy one, I've heard that before.

[rdy-b]

we use bee vacs specal desighn.  :) sometime i will tell you about the BEE MAGINET :-D keep up the good work 8-) RDY-B

[JP]

I have a bee-vac but never use it on swarms, no need to. Why stress the bees unnecessarily?

[Cindi]

JP, cool.  I love to hear the stories of the swarm rescues.  Not my gig though.  Don't think even if swarm captures were prevalent in my area that it would interest me.  Maybe though, if you have fun doing one, then it may be something that could catch ya and get ya hooked.  Hmm...have a wonderful day, tell us more about swarm captures, fellow forum friends!!!!!  Cindi

[rdy-b]

JP many bad desighned bee vacs out there. the more we used one the more we perfected it to our needs.(I know everybody says that) during peak season we roll on SEAVERAL swarms a day the calls come in from every resource we can think of. we get paid for about half (those are the pepole that dont want a single bee left behind takes time) we take speacal care of these swarms so we are not wasting time when we could be doing things in the yard like try to raise enough queens to keep the ball rolling.  CINDI swarms are a RUSH you should try it you will like it  :)  RDY-B

[Cindi]

RDY-B, I can believe it.  I have actually caught three swarms in my past.  The first one was with a couple of pals from the bee club.  It was one that landed in the back of my property, near the apiary.  They did all of it for me.  I was very new to beekeeping, had only had bees about 4 months and they showed me the ropes.  It was tall in a tree, they had to use an extension ladder, and a bee vac, it was a big one.  Then I caught one last summer at my sister in law's house, and a small one locally at my cousins.  They were fun for sure, but seeing and hearing all that you swarm guys do to make swarm catching easiser, I have so much that I can lean on for knowledge.  So, these three swarms were pretty exciting to me, but oh, so much work......I can be lazy in certain aspects of life.  I enjoyed catching them, it made me feel good, like I was helping them out in their endeavours to find a happy home  :roll:  I just don't think I would want to do many of them, not my gig.

Have a wonderful day, great life, Cindi

[JP]

My point is if it is a swarm that is in a cluster and hasn't entered any void space such as someone's home or a tree, there is no need to vacuum the swarm if you get the queen. If you get the queen, you can put her in a trap with pheremone and by evening, if not right before your eyes, all the bees will go in the trap, and then you can take them to the beeyard. Of course it is not practical to wait and go back if you are too far away from where the swarm is located. My take if that is the situation, you have the queen and the vast majority of the bees you can take them with you when you leave. I don't worry about a handful of stragglers, the hive will live on.

Give me a swarm call any day of the week Cindi, in fact I wouldn't be upset if I got a call in the middle of the night, my wife might be. A swarm is a hive. A swarm is a hive. It is a gift! And they make you look good too I might add, when you handle one in front of the public! ;)

[JP]

Ps: if I ever figure out how to load pictures, I have plenty to show ya'll. Sorry for my computer illitteracies :-x

[Cindi]

JP, take some time while on the forum and look at the posting pictures tutorial.  It is actually quite simple.  Read it and try it, would love to see your pictures!!!!  I would like to try using photobucket or something because I do find the forum Imageshack really slow with downloading pictures, that may still be my computer, but I see many forum members use photobucket.  I don't know, maybe something else to check out.  Have the good day.  Cindi

[JP]

My pictures are on a program called picassa2, our computer person said I needed to load them there and I have asked him to spell it out very simply, how I could post pictures but I am lost! The picassa2 thing makes it difficult for me. I know its probably something very simple but I 'm having trouble with it for now. Its killing me that I can't share my pics!

[rdy-b]

JP i know the felling about that i am trying to advance in that field also.we are bieing powered by beepower :-D never underestimate the power of the bee. ;) RDY-B

[JP]

Hey rdy-b you mentioned something about your bee magnet?

[rdy-b]

 :-D :-D :-D

[JP]

 :-D :?

[Cindi]

rdy-b.  OK, you're holdin' out.  We know that you have a secret!!!!  Come on, tell us, tell us your secret of your bee gagnet  :-P  Have a wonderful day, Cindi.

[rdy-b]

 :lol: more to BEE revield GREAT day RDY-B

[JP]

What a big tease! :-*

[Cindi]

JP, no kidding, now isn't rdy-b a hug bug!!!!  He really is getting us all hepped up for his bee magnet secret!!!!  Best of this day.  Cindi

[JP]

Its not right to tell people you have a secret. They are really saying I have a secret to tell you but I will tell you when I'm good and ready. Until then, I will let you suffer, trying to think what the secret might be.