Honey makers!

I just got home from capturing a swarm of wild honeybees! A friend from work called tonight about 8:30 to tell me there were a "bunch of bees" in a tree in her yard. We very quickly packed up a few essentials and went over. The timing was perfect- the privet is blooming and it makes the *best* honey! I seem to be testing myself this week as far as the "dislikes high places that feel unsafe" thing goes, however. I am tired and it is past my bedtime. I will write more later, here are the photos for now. I am going to go read a mindless book for a little while and get some sleep!




Honeybee swarm about 25' up on a pine tree limb.




Kevin and Mr. Wayne setting up the extension ladder.





You can just see the swarm at the top of the ladder- the limb the ladder was on didn't exactly overwhelm me with confidence.

Me taking the nuc (nucleus) box out. It is a small hive body that will give the bees a chance to set up housekeeping and pull a few frames of wax for brood and honey.

Board in one hand, pail in the other, you can see the swarm directly over my head. I was trying not to look down and not think about how that limb the ladder was on was wobbling and making ominous noises. I went up a few more steps and told Kevin I was about to get them and to step back out from under them. I used the board to scrape the clump of bees in the bucket. Most of the clump went into the bucket, but a smaller clump missed and fell not on the ground, but directly on Kevin. He had decided to be chivalrous and foolishly did not move because he "had to hold the ladder". The bees that miss the bucket are the ones that give you trouble. All they want is to find the queen and when they can't find her they get irritable. Fortunately he was only stung once. I do wish I could have seen his reaction....



Checking to see if I got the queen in the nuc box and not on the ground. Rosemary was too busy dodging stings to take a photo of me hustling down the ladder with a bucket full of honey bees! Probably a good thing.



Just a few bees left in  the tree.


And a few in the bucket- I had poured/shaken the others into the nuc box. It was a good capture- Kevin and I only got stung once each. He was a very good sport for holding that ladder.



The nuc box- the queen is in the middle of the clump of bees right where the flashlight is shining.



The bees are realizing the queen is in the box and starting to climb in.

Lid on- confused bees trying to figure out how to get in- they know she is there!

At this point there were a fair number of loose bees flying around. They are not looking to sting, but if they get on you and get pinched or trapped- like up a sleeve or in your hair- they will. Isabelle, who is not as enamored with the bees as Rosemary and I are, was staying well out of range dancing around and playing with a flashlight. All of a sudden I heard the most awful screeching and screaming- it was Isabelle and she was going berserk. I ran over and she was screaming incoherently, but I managed to get that there were bees stinging her feet- she was wearing flip-flops. I picked here up and saw that she had gotten onto some stickers! She was greatly consoled that they were simply thorns and not bees and immediately settled down. She is very much a "scream first and ask questions later" kind of gal. She calmly sat down and picked out stickers. Stickers are just fine and dandy, bees- no way.



Worker bees are starting to line up on the landing board, fanning their wings. This is proof positive that the queen is inside. Within about 5 minutes, the hole in the nuc box had a line of bees just pouring into it. Honeybees have a very complex social system and are utterly and completely devoted to the queen. Very cool. This fanning will waft the queen's scent out over the area and the other bees on the ground and up on the tree will beat a path into the nuc. It is strange to me that they walk and do not fly in. I guess the ones in the tree will fly down. I just hope they like their new home and will stay! I will go check on them in the morning- if they decided to stay in this nuc I will bring them home tomorrow night. Cross your fingers!