The Honey Factory

[My Bagurks]

I got a call yesterday from my neighbor that a swarm was in a bush by his driveway. My father in law is the beekeeper but I’ve helped him on occasion. He has about 50 hives around my property and one apparently swarmed. So I grab my bee suit,get my kids and an empty hive and go to my neighbors. The first picture is as soon as I got out of the car. The second is 1 minute later when I zipped up my suit. And the third is less than a minute after that.

The kids and I watched the whole swarm move ever so slowly across his yard and into the high fenced private property with mean owners next door.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Ive never actually seen a swarm in my area. Maybe I havent looked hard enough.

Unless you live near a beekeeper you probably won't see a swarm. Unmanaged colonies struggle to survive from varroa mites and the diseases they vector. As resistance to diseases slowly gets better someday swarms will be a common sight again.

 

[jerryse]

At my cabin now . Paid attention to pollinators on my clover . No honeybees . Zone 3 is a tough go for feral bees . 93 here and 95 for Ralphie . Good time to suit up and work the bees Ralphie .

 

[duluthralphie]

At my cabin now . Paid attention to pollinators on my clover . No honeybees . Zone 3 is a tough go for feral bees . 93 here and 95 for Ralphie . Good time to suit up and work the bees Ralphie .

I just got home this afternoon. Good time to sit by the AC and look out the windows.

 

[R2elk]

Finally, the swarm is now in an actual hive. The nuc was much heavier today than when I put the swarm in it.

The bees are the woman's babies. Her husband stood back from a distance and watched as we moved the bees into her hive.

I did find the queen on the last frame that I moved. There was lots of capped brood along with larvae of all stages. I am sure there were eggs too but didn't take my glasses off to check for them. Lots of freshly built comb.

Nice gentle bees. No smoke was used. No one got stung either.

 

[jerryse]

Yesterday I stopped at Mann Lake supply . Only about 20 miles from where I am . Got a fume board and some bee robber or is it robber bee . Going to try that when I pull my supers . Likely next weekend after I get back home . Curios how my trapped swarm is doing and if I caught anymore . I plan to re queen any swarms this year . I want VSH varoa sensitive hygiene trait . I plan to raise a couple of queens from that hive . 2 frame nuke like I saw on video .

 

[itsasmallfarm]

Just got 4 more hives today. Just got back from setting them up!

 

[jerryse]

I found this interesting . I could of used it to find the queen in the mean hive last year .

 

[R2elk]

Two swarms at the same time today.

 

[R2elk]

Sounds of a swarm