MIKI
05-24-2005, 05:26 PM
I'm out in the bee yard hiving a swarm I got from a friend when the activity around the hive to my right steadily increases. Next thing I know the air is full of bees (what an awesome sight). I walked to a place where I could watch from the shade and see where they land, about 10 feet away and 10 feet up an apple tree. Now comes the good part, I got nothing to catch a swarm with and my fellow beekeepers are at work. I find a wooden fence pole and screw a square plastic container to it. Then I grab an old military foot locker and make a quick TBH. I get the ladder and move everything into place. Right about now my father-in-law comes home from work, he always wants to help with the bees but he wonÂ’t admit heÂ’s getting hooked. He sees the ladder and shakes his head I know itÂ’s not going to fall but he is a skeptic and insists on holding it just to be safe (He only speaks German and I speak Germglish). The ladder is right under the swarm so up I go home made catcher in hand. I look down and think this is not a good place for him to stand, but everything I read said bees in a swarm canÂ’t sting due to a full honey stomach. I shook the branch and got most of them except for the soft ball size bunch that hit him, So much for ladder safety I have never seen him run let alone that fast, he only took one sting. I got harassed all the way down the ladder and stung twice through my gloves.
I missed the fine print that said “not all the bees in a swarm will gorge themselves there will be guards.” We ended up with the whole swarm a couple of hours later only a handful was hanging out on the front. I will post some pics tomorrow. My wife shot the video she said we could have won the 30,000 but I didn’t fall out of the tree, I told her I’ll try harder next time. All in all I really enjoyed the experience.
I missed the fine print that said “not all the bees in a swarm will gorge themselves there will be guards.” We ended up with the whole swarm a couple of hours later only a handful was hanging out on the front. I will post some pics tomorrow. My wife shot the video she said we could have won the 30,000 but I didn’t fall out of the tree, I told her I’ll try harder next time. All in all I really enjoyed the experience.