The bee swarms!

What a crazy week! On Monday I looked out my kitchen window and saw bees flying all over the tramp up in the air. I'm a new beekeeper, but even I know this is NOT normal. I called Eric (of course he' not there when it happened) and he told me I needed to capture it quickly before it flew away. Yikes! So Caleb and I suited up in our beekeeper suits (aka haz-mat suits) and went outside to the tramp. I had Eric on speakerphone talking me through it and giving encouragement. We waited for them to settle down and they all formed a cluster under the springs on the tramp. We put an empty beehive box under the tramp and I scooped them off and down into the box. We must have gotten the queen because they eventually all followed. Here is the box about an hour later, before we put the top cover on.



Here is "Cool Caleb" after we caught the swarm. He was much more calm that I was! Way to go, Caleb!




Later that night Eric moved it over with the other hives, so then we were up to 4, our 3 hives plus Caleb's. After it was all over with, I was thinking, "Dang! I should have taken a picture of the swarm to have proof that I did it because it'll probably never happen again!"


Little did I know......

TWO DAYS LATER, Adam ran upstairs and said there were lots of bees flying around the tramp again! Of course Eric was gone again, (where is he when I need him?!) so Caleb and I suited up. This time I grabbed my camera. ( I was too nervous the first time to even think about photos) This is what we saw on the tramp.


We waited and watched for a while to make sure they were settling down, and they all moved down into a cluster on the grass.



So we brought out another box and scooped them up from the grass into their new home. CRAZY!!! I never thought in a million years I'd be face to face with ten thousand bees!! I tried to be careful and not squish them with my big thick gloves.


Luke took a picture of me from the deck. He was my good little babysitter while Caleb and I were outside. It took about 30 minutes each time. So we now have 5 hives out back and 1 in Mapleton.


Bees are actually very gentle when they are swarming. I've seen pictures of beekeepers catching them without any protective clothing or gloves, but I'm not that crazy! They swarm when they feel crowded in their hives. The queen leaves with half the hive, and the remaining bees raise up a new queen and keep on going... but it sets the hive back several weeks. We are pretty sure they were two of our hives. Eric checked and two of our original hives look smaller. We put entrance reducers at the opening of each hive when we got them in April so they could protect their hives from invaders, but I guess we were supposed to remove those some time ago. Oops! We figure they felt cramped because they couldn't get in and out as fast as they wanted to. So it probably means not much honey this fall as they will probably just have enough for them to keep over the winter.... but hopefully next year we'll have 5 stronger hives. Caleb is hoping his hive doesn't split. We'll see how it goes. Its all a big learning process!

If you ever see a swarm, don't kill it! Call the local beekeepers association or the police and they'll get in touch with them. Usually a beekeeper will come get it for free. They look really scary, but they aren't usually a threat unless you really bug them. They don't have a hive or honey to defend, they are just looking for a home for their queen. Hows that for bees: 101? :) I'm learning a lot about these amazing little critters.

Don't let this scare you if you are thinking about getting bees.... which I highly recommend because they are way cool and such an amazing little society, they give you raw honey (great for allergies!) and pollinate all your trees, flowers & veggies. This doesn't normally happen... we just goofed up I guess!