[JSneed]

Just after lunch yesterday a swarm came in and landed on a big weed just outside our loading dock at work. Our warehouse manager came to get me saying “come check out the thousands of bees flying around”. The swarm was pretty big I’d guess about the size of a basketball if they were in a ball but it’s hard to really tell cause they were stretched out along 3 or 4 branches. The weight of them laid the branches on the ground. I called my wife and told her to bring “swarm collecting gear”. I put a HHRB with LGO beside them and went back to work. After work they hadn’t moved so I went home and came back about 6:00. They still hadn’t moved. So I decided to trim the weed back so I could get the 3 branches at once and shook them in and closed the lid and stuffed a rag in the entrance. After about 10 minutes there were a couple thousand bees still trying to get in so I figured we had the queen. But we just didn’t want to leave that many bees behind. So I unplugged the entrance and we went to get a bite to eat. When we got back they were covering the entrance end of the box but weren’t moving in. I got a spray bottle of water and started misting them heavily. This made about 10 percent of them to march in, the rest just hunkered down. So we decided to leave and go back this morning. Judging by the puddles it rained pretty good there last night and they were all in the HHRB. Stuffed a rag in the entrance and brought them home. They’re orienting as I type 😀.

 

[AR1]

Wow! Fun day at work. Does it get much easier? I bet your boss was just happy to get all those bees out of there!

 

[JSneed]

My boss was all about it. He said his father kept bees around their soybean fields, and he had helped with them starting when he was 10 years old (he’s in his 60s now).

 

[JSneed]

Here’s some pics.

 

[JSneed]

Oops, hit the wrong button.
Here they are.

 

[Litsinger]

Oops, hit the wrong button.
Here they are.

Good looking swarm, JSneed. Congratulations.

Russ

 

[Richinbama]

Nice catch James. How you guys doing?

 

[JSneed]

Doing just fine,Rich. How’re y’all?

 

[Richinbama]

Doing fair here. Back issues, still. Procedure done didn't help at all. Otherwise good. How are your bees doing? Mine has taken a few hiccups this season. Swarms faster than I could prevent. So, honey crop was impacted greatly. Actually, I really didn't harvest. Robbing early on was not good. Mostly on the splits I did. Otherwise, all well recover. Just slowly now that flow is and has been gone a bit ago.

 

[JSneed]

Our bees are doing better. One of the 3 we added eggs to when you were here made a queen and she has capped brood. The other 2 made QCs on the next round of added eggs. Fingers crossed on those 2.
I just walked out to check the newest swarm and they are bringing in pollen already👍.

 

[Akademee]

I got one at work too last year. Real head turner that day was.

 

[JSneed]

It was funny to me and my wife just how many of the “tough” guys at work only wanted to watch from a distance. Some of them didn’t know we’d gotten into beekeeping. Since then nearly all of them have “placed an order” for honey. 😀

 

[Richinbama]

Great deal. Glad the bees and you guys are doing well.

 

[JSneed]

Here’s a pic of the new queen. Does she look Italian?

 

[Richinbama]

Looks like a mix to me. My Italian mixed with ferral or from.other hives look like this. Probably a mutt. But they are good too. 😊