On Andrew’s way off to work this morning, he noticed that there was a huge basketball size cluster of bees underneath our mail box! The first thing he thought was “oh know, our bees left the hive!” We all went down to our hives and found that our bees were still there!
There was a WILD HONEY BEE SWARM on our mail box!!!!
I called my Fabulous In-laws down the street and my Father-In-Law, Ronnie, came to the rescue to watch Isabella (10 months) so Andrew and I could suit up and go catch the swarm!!!! We’ve never done this before. Never heard of anyone we know doing it, but we did see it on a bee movie a few months ago…
Andrew took a cardboard box and put in five of our bee top bars inside and made a hole for them to come in and out… and put ventilation holes in the side. See pictures below.
We went down there and got the swarm!!! Andrew sprayed the cluster with sugar water and I brushed the bees while Andrew held the box under the mail box!!! We got about 80% of them in there and they were clustering at the bottom of the box… which I think tells us we got the queen…?
We left the hole open so the rest of the bees could come in and set out a sugar water dispenser for them to eat. I wonder if they’ll stay in there until tonight when we go to close them up! Oohhhhh!!!!! Oohhh!!!! Exciting!!!!!
Here’s pictures I took on my iPhone and a video I took right before we caught the swarm…
YOUTUBE VIDEO BELOW:
———— Pictures Below ————
Our last-minute swarm catching tools… We took a cardboard box and put holes it in and laid our top bars on one side… we’ll see if it works!
Andrew checking out the swarm right before we brushed them in to the box.
These bees on the back of the mail box remained after we put the majority of them in the box.
We did it, the wild honeybee swarm is in that cardboard box, at least for the moment!!!!! Woooooowwwhooooowwweeeee!
Click HERE to read the follow up blog post to this story.
I’d love to see a follow up on this when you get time.
Just did it, here it is… http://thepromiselandfarm.org/2012/05/02/honeybee-swarm-update/
Love it! My dad would have people call him and we would go get bee’s that had swarmed and bring them back home in his old panel truck. ..Joe Weaver
Joe,
That’s awesome! We want to know more! Sometime when you have time, come tell us more about how y’all caught swarms and when you did with them. We’re green and need ideas! I’ve got lots of eggs I can share with you in return! 🙂