[GLOCK]

So what's your best experiences you have had in the bee yard.
Mine would have to be when I seen a queen hatch out of a QC plus I've seen queens laying and once I walked up on my beeyards and there was a hawk hunting the birds that where eating my bees. Pretty cool.

 

[WBVC]

So far I think I get the most pleasure out of watching the bees at the entrances. I also feel satisfaction when I find a Queen I am looking for.
So many small pleasures...including the smell of bees wax and nectar

 

[Stella]

The first time I heard a queen piping.
Watching brood hatch.
Watching a bee do the" bee dance".

Standing in the cloud of docile bees while inspecting. I always pause and enjoy it.

 

[Lauri]

I love the warm, heady, earthy, sweet honey smell of a healthy hive full of new brood. Especially in early spring. I know we're rockin and rollin then.

Seeing a grown man giggle when I show him a big fat queen in a mating nuc and watching his shaking hands throw me a couple $20.'s ain't bad ether

But opening a mating nuc or overwintered hive and seeing a MONSTER you've produced heading the hive has a great feeling of satisfaction.

Especially since I am relatively new at beekeeping, these little positive signs make all the work and effort of learning this craft worth it.

 

[Michael Palmer]

I've been doing this so long I can't remember all the best things. Every day with the bees is a best day. But…

Last summer I had a memorable experience.

We were in a mating nuc holding yard when a swarm began to issue from one of the nucs. I dropped to the ground at the entrance and waited…for the queen to issue forth. Out came the yellow dot queen in the last third of the swarm issue. I grabbed her before she could fly off within the bee. Amazingly…by the thorax. Nice grab someone said. I let out a war whoop they must have heard in Montreal.

I caged her as the swarm flew off over the trees. I placed the cage on an empty hive body about 10 yards from the nuc and went back to work. One of the help wondered what I was doing. "Patience Grasshopper".

About a half hour later there were 5 bees flying around the cage. 5 minutes later, there were 50. Then here they all come back in full force and land on the cage. Great fun we have here in the bee yards.

 

[Barry Digman]

Any time one of my children was with me was the best. They're grown and gone with children of their own, and I miss those moments.

 

[Hokie Bee Daddy]

Any time one of my children was with me was the best. They're grown and gone with children of their own, and I miss those moments.

I agree, Barry. Even though I enjoy being in the hives alone, I always remember when someone does it with me. Last week my college age son helped me split hives and I'll always remember it.

I also enjoy spotting a virgin queen which is often one of those "What tha' ..." head scratching moments.

 

[Lauri]

Neat story MP.

That reminds me of a swarm last year that made it's way from a tree to my swarm trap. But instead of swirling all around, they went from the tree to the trap in a huge cloud of bees, all facing the same direction and flying very slow, just like orientation flights you see in front of hives. It was amazing.

Your story also reminds me of hunting when I spooked a grouse up and it flew down hill...right at my husband. He happened to have an arrow in his hand and swung at it as it flew by. He cut it's throat with the broadhead and it fell to the ground. Everyone calls BS on that story, but it is totally true. LOL
Looks like you have good reflex's too

 

[sqkcrk]

My bees take me places I otherwise might not have gone. My most memorable time was in an apple orchard waiting for the truck to meet up w/ me in my Bobcat Loader. I had driven the loader to the top of the orchard, turned it around and faced the orchard spreading out below me into the distance. All of those trees. All of those beautiful blossoms. Very early in the morning, predawn. Sitting in the now quiet Bobcat the sun was coming up over the VT mountains to my left and to my right the snow covered Adirondack High Peaks catching those first rays. A sense of peace and connectedness came over me.

This is something I can go back to in my mind any time I need to.

 

[Lauri]

A sense of peace and connectedness came over me.

This is something I can go back to in my mind any time I need to.

quiet solitude of nature..my absolute favorite! Rocky Mt. High....

That why I learned to play guitar when I was young...John Denver. He sung about where I wanted to be and who I wanted to be. And I make it a point to live that way.

 

[sqkcrk]

Lauri, I'm glad for you and your husband that things didn't go another way.

 

[Lauri]

Lauri, I'm glad for you and your husband that things didn't go another way.

Huh?

 

[sqkcrk]

Some times I think faster than I read and I imagined you shooting that bird out of the air as it flew past your husband. I like your story better.

 

[biggraham610]

I think so far, and this is only my second year, was seeing my new queen accepted in my laying worker hive last year. Then seeing that the same hive, which I named "Chance", made it through winter and is now my strongest.

 

[Goldprospector]

Having a swarm (about 5 lbs) with a really good queen land in a blueberry bush about 5 feet from the hive that they came from.

 

[David LaFerney]

When my nephews came over to the fence to watch what I was doing and I cut out pieces of fresh white comb full of new nectar for them to eat. I imagine that is a childhood experience that few have had.

 

[AstroZomBEE]

I remember one time the crew and I were on lunch break, a short distance from the bee yard, and a black bear comes walking up to us, got about 20 feet away, then we chased it off with a pickup truck. No hives were destroyed that day.........

 

[BernhardHeuvel]

Just want to add a nice story: I was driving by car with my sister when I spotted a swarm in a fruit tree near the road. I was not prepared, no tools, no protection, no nothing. It was raining, pouring rain. The swarm settled very tightly due to the rain. So I simply cutted off the branch the swarm was sitting on and had a seat on the front passenger seat, holding the twig with the swarm on it, my sister drove. Soon after the swarm was out of the rain and because of the heater inside the car, the swarm came loose slowly. We started with a swarm sized like a soccer ball and ended with a swarm cluster of the size of an apple or so. All the other bees...well, were distributed all over the car's windows. Front, back, sides. With one hand I wiped the front window so my sister (she's pretty cool) could see something.

I loved all the faces staring at us when we were driving by. In the cars, at the sidewalk, when stopping at the traffic lights and so.

 

[AstroBee]

Last weekend I was cleaning out my koi pond, which is right next to 10 colonies. My wife calls out "I think you've got a swarm". I had done a cut-down earlier, but apparently not soon enough. Wanting to capture the swarm, but knee deep in koi muck, I asked my wife to run inside and grab my spray bottle of bee-scent (I use a dilute mixture as a swarm attractant and in requeening). The swarm was clearly heading up to a very high point in my beech tree, which would have been a big problem at the time, but I sprayed the bee-scent on the low-hanging branches and within about 5 minutes the swarm started to collect exactly where I sprayed. 1/2 hour later they were in my box.

 

[Phoebee]

To date, with limited experience, the day our stock broker had us over to his place to see his bees. He'd found out my wife was interested and planning to take a course, but had never been in a hive or handled bees. He suited her up and opened his backyard hive.

She was like a little girl. Fell in love with the little darlings right then and there. Just watching her was fun.