I recieved a call from the local news station about a swarm.

[BeeMaster2]

Last Thursday, I received a call from the local news station about a swarm. I had just walked in my front door having come home from work.    I was feeling lousy having been sick for the last 3 days and I was planning to go straight to bed. As soon as I opened the door my son says that channel 4 is on the phone and was looking for someone to interview about a swarm on the Chamber of Commerce building down town. She even sent me a picture of it. I told her I was sick but I would call my buddy, Jim to go. I called Jim, but he did not want to do it alone. It was 40' up on the side of the building. It was however right next to a stair landing. I called the news woman back and told her we were loading up the truck and would head down town.

Here is the video clip that viewed that night on the news.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/Bees-swarm-on-downtown-building/-/475880/13068722/-/c521ihz/-/index.html

I was out at the farm last night and most of the day today, out of cell reach. As we drove into town I got an IM from my brother in the Levittown PA asking me if I got a swarm from a Jacksonville building. He saw it on the news up there but they only used parts of it and they only showed the back of me, no names and he thought it was me. I sent him this clip. Now that was cool. Most of my family is located near him and they showed it there.

After coaching several times, I finally got the news caster, Kent to climb the stairs to look at the bees. He got within 10' and then left. The camera man was right there on the staircase the whole time. If you notice, Kent was on the staircase after the bees were long gone , and after dark. We were done by 6:30. He is scared of bees but he was a good sport about it.  :)
Getting that swarm really got me pumped up. By the time we did the interview, I was feeling pretty good.
Jim

[duck]

weren't you guys afraid of getting stung!?!  :-D  you should have told them to refer to you as beemasters.. lol

[BabcockFarms]

Great news spot. I enjoyed watching it.

[BeeMaster2]

weren't you guys afraid of getting stung!?!  :-D  you should have told them to refer to you as beemasters.. lol

Duck,
I did try to get them to mention our bee club. as you can see they didn't.   :(

Ron,
Thanks.

[BlueBee]

Great job Jim and Jim!  Pretty nice looking swarm.  Did you catch the queen with the queen catcher before vacuuming up the bees?

LOL, it must have been a slow news day. 

A "rare site"?  "This sight absolutely shocked people nearby".  "Giant clump of mudd".   

Don Henley would love it!

I don't have a bee vacuum so I end up brushing swarms into a bucket or a hive and that results in a lot of bees in the air.  Your odds of getting stung go up in that case as you may inadvertently squeeze a bee.  I do wear a head net, but otherwise usually skip the gear for swarms.  I did get stung once this spring catching 14 swarms.  I got it in the cheek of all places. 

[JP]

Great job! How convenient that you were able to use the staircase right? I don't particularly like shaking a swarm off a 40' ladder.  ;)

Nice sized swarm too!


...JP

[Riggs]

Great job, glad to see they didn't try to put a scary spin on it.

[AllenF]

Well done story.   

[JackM]

Great play on the whole story, from his "unnatural fear of bees" to how many people were interested, great.

[BeeMaster2]

Thanks all. As usual they, spent a lot more time on video taping the bees and the interviews than they used. They did do a longer story than most news stores on the TV.   We had fun doing it.
Jim and Jim

[Larry Bees]

Great job Jim and Jim ! Which Jim are you? Larry

[D Coates]

Great Job!  So often bee reporting get sensationalistic.  This report didn't and Jim and Jim did a great job quickly explaining what was going on and handling it very professionally.  Folks may be more apt to call a beekeeper instead of spraying when a swarm shows up near them because of this.

[BeeMaster2]

Thanks D.
Jim

[jhs494]

Great job! Very nice that it was told on the news with a positive outcome.
Nice size swarm as well.

[Country Heart]

Enjoyed the video clip.  Sounds like a swarm was just the medicine you needed.   :)

[BeeMaster2]

Enjoyed the video clip.  Sounds like a swarm was just the medicine you needed.   :)

Once we got on site, I did feel a whole lot better, for the rest of the night as a matter of fact. The next day it all came back and I' still fighting it. Must have been the adrenalin rush.  Thanks.
Jim

[NasalSponge]

Fantastic!