Hi Birds and Bees Team members,
I am a Bee Steward, and this is swarm season.
I want to share a non-Etsy experience that falls within our Team's interest. I took time away from my Etsy shop yesterday to play Bee Steward.
I spent yesterday afternoon with 2 fellow Bee Stewards from 2:00 until 7:30 pm capturing a honey bee swarm and getting it inside a swarm box for the evening. The swarm box was stowed in our basement, and we will put the hive in its new home tomorrow night. Much excitement. The swarm was from one of our own hives, which is why we need to wait a day to re-house it. (So the bees don't try to go back to their original hive or to swarm again.)
Very lucky that we got the Queen in the swarm box on the first catch. The swarm was 40' up a spindley tree hanging off a branch. When I got the branch cut, it broke off suddenly and dropped. We were lucky to catch the Queen and her surrounding protection bees in the swarm box as it dropped. We waited all afternoon for the rest of the bees to come in through and opening in the swarm box and rejoin the Queen. A goodly number of the bees had started to form a new swarm "teardrop" on the branch where she had been. But that group came into the swarm box eventually as darkness and temperature fell.
Big WHEW!
This morning as I cut up the branches for recycling that I had lopped off to create a drop path for the branch holding the swam. I came across the branch on which the bee swarm had alit. I was surprised to see the beginnings of comb on this branch. Last night in the swarm box in the basement, I could hear the click-click sound of comb being built. Definitely a good sign that the Queen is alive and well.
It is so much easier to capture a swarm closer to the ground--no extension ladder or telescoping branch trimmer, or catching swarm balls dropping from the heavens.
By the way, swarming is a healthy, natural behavior. The Queen takes off with half the hive or more once she has enough capped brood cells that will hatch out as new worker bees, as well as new queen cells, and honey for all to eat until the new Queen is laying eggs. Also, swarming honey bees are full of honey and very docile. We donned out bee jackets and gloves yesterday because of all of the branch trimming and ladder climbing up to a very high swarm. The last time I captured a swarm, I didn't wear any protection, and just used a feather to brush the bees into the swarm box off a rafter under a shed roof.
Here are my final pleas to folks who, like me, care about the survival of the honey bee--PLEASE DON'T USE PESTICIDES EVER. AND TRY TO AVOID BUYING GMO FOOD. Pesticides and GMO crops have been implicated in helping to cause Colony Collapse Disorder. I have seen wingless bees cleaned out our hive. Bees will forage up to 5 miles from their hive, so the workers collecting pollen and nectar have gotten exposure somewhere else. Gardening with native species plants will support all bee pollinators, as well as butterflies and song birds. You don't have to keep bees to support their survival. Garden smart and eat smart and you are doing a lot!
Well, back to store-dom.
