Judy in IN
04-18-2009, 09:57 PM
So, I'm up at Skyview farm working. I'm running the backhoe. Hubby wants to fix the field tile, and install a culvert across the creek. I get most of the tile work done, and we find out the tile we have is a smaller diameter. Hubby takes the truck and runs to town for 14" tile.
I go across the road to the 40 acre field. Hubby wants to put 3 16' 18" tiles in the creek, and then fill in around them. He wants a 40' opening through the trees along the creek. SO....I fire up the chainsaw and am cutting down trees.
My phone rings about 6 p.m. It's a little gal about 15 miles away with a swarm of bees. The bees have decided to make the wall of an Advance Auto their new home. I have no veil, gloves, jacket, etc. What I DO have is the little experimental top bar hive that I bought off Ebay. I tell her I'll call back as soon as Hubby gets back with the truck. I glue the sticks into the top bars while I'm waiting for his return.
Hubby gets back at 7 p.m. I call the girl to ask how high off the ground the swarm might be.....maybe a foot? So, I leave Sweetheart at the farm, and dirty and stinky me heads off to see the bees.
The bees were not even a foot above the ground! They were clustered on a concrete block wall AT ground level. I carried the little hive over and sat it right on the pavement. I had stopped to get some store-bought honey about a block earlier. I flipped the top bars upside-down, and drizzled honey over them. Then, I flipped them over into the right position. I squirted a little honey at the entrance, and borrowed a broom to sweep the bees off the wall. It was a good-sized swarm. They found the honey, and somewhere in there, the queen marched into the hive. I never spotted her, but I showed the two young women the current of bees moving into the entrance, and the bees giving the "she's here" signal.
Then, I collected my $20! I'll go back tomorrow and collect the hive.
The business manager was glad to pay $20. He had called the district office, who told him to call an exterminator. The exterminator told him to find a beekeeper. That's ME!
So...I did some PR for beekeeping, encouraged the two young women to look into beekeeping, and have a FREE swarm in my new top bar hive. Easiest swarm I ever collected. :D
Oh, and on my way back to the farm to pick up Hubby, I called a GF who has bees. She was disgusted. She informed me that she paid $60 last summer for just a QUEEN! She also happened to be at my house visiting, when I had a swarm come and install itself in one of my empty hives! That was Sweeeet!
Life is Good!
I go across the road to the 40 acre field. Hubby wants to put 3 16' 18" tiles in the creek, and then fill in around them. He wants a 40' opening through the trees along the creek. SO....I fire up the chainsaw and am cutting down trees.
My phone rings about 6 p.m. It's a little gal about 15 miles away with a swarm of bees. The bees have decided to make the wall of an Advance Auto their new home. I have no veil, gloves, jacket, etc. What I DO have is the little experimental top bar hive that I bought off Ebay. I tell her I'll call back as soon as Hubby gets back with the truck. I glue the sticks into the top bars while I'm waiting for his return.
Hubby gets back at 7 p.m. I call the girl to ask how high off the ground the swarm might be.....maybe a foot? So, I leave Sweetheart at the farm, and dirty and stinky me heads off to see the bees.
The bees were not even a foot above the ground! They were clustered on a concrete block wall AT ground level. I carried the little hive over and sat it right on the pavement. I had stopped to get some store-bought honey about a block earlier. I flipped the top bars upside-down, and drizzled honey over them. Then, I flipped them over into the right position. I squirted a little honey at the entrance, and borrowed a broom to sweep the bees off the wall. It was a good-sized swarm. They found the honey, and somewhere in there, the queen marched into the hive. I never spotted her, but I showed the two young women the current of bees moving into the entrance, and the bees giving the "she's here" signal.
Then, I collected my $20! I'll go back tomorrow and collect the hive.
The business manager was glad to pay $20. He had called the district office, who told him to call an exterminator. The exterminator told him to find a beekeeper. That's ME!
So...I did some PR for beekeeping, encouraged the two young women to look into beekeeping, and have a FREE swarm in my new top bar hive. Easiest swarm I ever collected. :D
Oh, and on my way back to the farm to pick up Hubby, I called a GF who has bees. She was disgusted. She informed me that she paid $60 last summer for just a QUEEN! She also happened to be at my house visiting, when I had a swarm come and install itself in one of my empty hives! That was Sweeeet!
Life is Good!