Warm Spring Days Bring Swarms: On Capturing a Honeybee Swarm

The Swarm!

April marked my one year anniversary as a beekeeper. It was a rough first year, to be sure. But I did have some success. My hive survived the winter, and that is a huge success of its own. So many friends lost hives this year.

It has been quite the year of learning the ropes but, yesterday something happened that made me feel as though I crossed over to new level of beekeeping. I caught a swarm.

Let me backtrack just a little: Last Thursday I checked my hive for swarm cells. I had hoped to see some; I was waiting to get a few swarm cells before I split out a nucleus colony, or nuc as the experienced folks call it. No such luck. It was looking a little tight in the boxes, but no swarm cells.

On Monday I decided to look again. I'm impatient, something I've mentioned before. In just a few days time the girls had created a handful of swarm cells. Yeah!

I ran up to the garage and grabbed my nuc box and some empty frames. Juggling this extra equipment I hustled back down to the hive and carefully placed everything out on the ground. Don't like my equipment in a bunch...nice orderly rows of boxes, frames, and tools for me!

By this time I needed to take a break. Storm clouds were looming, the humidity was oppressive. It was our first sweltering day of the year...hot, humid, no breeze. I could no longer see for the sweat blurring my vision.

After a short breather, I donned my suit, lit up the smoker and got to work. I'll write about the process of splitting out the nuc another time. I've not yet gotten to the whole reason for this post....the swarm.

As I was finishing up, the Boy pulled up on the lawn tractor, which was making a weird noise. Upon inspection I found the problem and looked up to tell him what tools I needed to make the fix. And there, just a few feet behind him I spied a glorious, humming, thriving swarm ensconced on an Autumn Olive that I had failed to pull out over the winter. (Invasive species, but the bees love it.)

Oh glory! I started screaming and jumping up and down with joy! Had any neighbors been home I'm sure they would have thought I was nuts. Well, I think they do anyway, but I'm sure I looked the part that afternoon.

My first swarm...and in my own yard! Hallelujah! And only 3 feet off the ground. It seemed a gift from the Divine! Placed within reach just for me!

I broke into action, heat be darned. Rubbermaid box and lid, check. Bee brush, check. Quick set up of a new hive, check. Extra bee suit for the Boy, check.  And cameras, check, check, check. Seriously, this had to be documented, which was the Boy's job in all of this.

Evaluating the best placement for catching the swarm.

I approached the swarm, trying to decide the best angle for the catchment box. Knowing I needed to get that queen along with all the bees was a bit intimidating. After studying the swarm for oh, 30 seconds, I grasped the top of the sapling, bent it over the box, and gave it a whack. Splat! a billion bees in a box! I shut the lid and walked the whole 10 feet to the new hive box and dumped them in. Shut the lid; walked away. 

Bending the sapling

The whack!

Recongregating bees. Whack, wait, repeat.

Ten minutes later a few hundred bees had regathered on the sapling, so I repeated the process. This time the flying sisters congregated on the front of the hive box. Yes! Yes! Yes!

After all was done, I contacted my mentor to see if I had done right. So maybe that was a bit backwards but I was Excited! (Yes, with a capital E). He assured me I had and gave me a few cues to look for to determine success. Were the bees gathering in the entrance? Were they going back to the tree? Yes. No. It was looking good.

Later that evening they were still there, buzzing in and out. I put in a frame of honey from another box...minus worker bees. I debated on putting another box on, it was a pretty big swarm. But I didn't want to disturb them too much. I wish I had. 

The next morning they were still there. Whoo hoo! It really was tight in there....every frame covered by bees. So, I promised them I'd have a new box for them that evening.

Sadly, when I returned home from taking the Boy to Latin and picking up new equipment, the colony was gone. But I still felt elated. I had caught the swarm! All on my own! I think the space I gave them was just too small. But I am ready for the next time, please let there be a next time!

The Beeginning of a New Adventure: The Bees Arrived!

Our Bee T.A.R.D.I.S.

Last Wednesday found me busily preparing for some very special additions to our homestead — honey bees! I needed to make sure their new home was prepared: boxes painted and dried, frames assembled and placed in the bottom box, sugar syrup mixed and ready to go, the "bee yard" tidied up and ready. Of course I had all this done days ago, but in my excitement I had to check and recheck. (Or was that my OCD?)

Because of all the excitement (mine), the Boy and I didn't get many of our academic subjects in that day. But learning about bees counts as school, right? The day seemed to take forever. But, finally, it was time to head to bee class where the bees for the participating students, plus those of a few other folks, would arrive from Georgia. 

Here is an abbreviated photo essay of the process of emptying the packages into our hives.

Bee packages in the back of the van

Karen getting her bees from Ron, while a classmate looks on.

OH MY GOD I HAVE BEES!

Girls and Bees

 Ok, so the bees arrived...Now what? Our teacher, Jeremy, very patiently (This man has infinite patience!) demonstrated how to get them from the package box into our hives.

Spray with sugar syrup

Remove top, then can of syrup

Check for the queen...is she alive?

Yes she is!

Remove the cork on the fondant side

Place the queen cage in between two frames, with the escape hole up.

Queen cage placed!

Replace frames

Shake it, Shake it, Shake it! (Shake your groove thing...)

See them waggle! No it wasn't the refrain to "Shake Your Groove Thing"
that made them waggle. It's what they do to signal to others, "Hey Ladies! This is our home!"

Any questions?

Just the experience of watching Jeremy empty those bees into the hive was amazing! There were bees flying everywhere—bumping into faces, arms, fingers. Yet they were so gentle. Apparently this is because they don't have anything to defend yet. Once they get some brood and honey in their frames, I'm sure they'll be more defensive. None of the humans panicked and most of us observed and then worked our own packages without protective gear. A fellow beekeeper brought some home made mead to sample, so maybe that helped bolster confidence!

Some of the folks in the class were nonchalant about handling their bees. For a few, it was a major triumph to do this without panicking; these are stinging insects and to have thousands of them flying around can be quite intimidating. Karen, a few other classmates, and I laughed and joked our way through it all. It was a festive atmosphere...our bee party.

Karen opens her box

Popping the cork

 

The bees enter the T.A.R.D.I.S.

Bee on a classmate. We were all covered in sugar syrup!

The Beeginning of a New Adventure

Flowers, but no bees.

Spring is here, so the calendar tells me. You wouldn't know it by the temperature, or by the signs of spring in the yard. If we're lucky we might get up to 55 degrees today. And maybe actually above freezing tonight. The weather reminds me of February's sugaring weather...freezing at night, in the 40s during the day.  February weather, not April!

Crocuses have opened and are now withering away, but still no sunny daffodils waving in the breezes. Or the bursting forth of the forsythia. To me the forsythia is always the true sign that spring is here to stay.By now it should be warm enough for the flowers and when the flowers bloom, in come the bees. And very soon, like next week, come MY bees!

Last summer, while chatting about chickens with my friends Karen and Leslie (We probably sounded much like the hens we were discussing "pick a little talk a little cheep cheep cheep.") we came around to talking about raw honey and then to bees. All three of us expressed a mild interest in beekeeping.

Mild interest, for I don't really like crawly things. I appreciate them, love how they help us, but don't really like them. Each summer I find myself putting on a brave face and chanting to some child, "Worms (spiders, bees, etc.) are our friends. We must let them go back to their homes." Meanwhile my inner wuss is screaming "squish it!" Especially when it comes to spiders.

But, after a year's worth of research: attending beekeepers meetings, reading, perusing catalogues, taking an intro to beekeeping workshop, and taking what the beekeepers call a "short course," we are actually picking up a package of bees next week.

Einstein is attributed with stating, “If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.” No one is really sure if he said that, but the point is a valid one. We need our pollinators, or we'll starve to death.

Unfortunately, our pollinators are dying off, and no one wants to say why. Most seasoned  beekeepers seem to think its a combination of things: pesticide use, genetically modified crops, loss of nectar sources, climate change, lowered disease resistance (due to the above). Lots of reasons all combining to wipe out a species that just can't adapt fast enough.

And beekeepers seem to be losing huge numbers of bees; dying off in late winter. (Some of the keepers at the York County Beekeepers Association are saying to expect a 50% die off this year.) It's been too cold to get in the hives to get hard numbers. 

So, while it might seem an exercise in futility, we're going to give it a try on our little homestead. My teacher, Jeremy Barnes, is estimating his losses at 10-20%, so maybe I'll be lucky if I emulate his methods. 

While I spend these last few chilly days (weeks?) dreaming about this year's yield in the garden and freezers full of chickens, I will also be nailing together hive bodies and frames, painting boxes, mounting beeswax foundation, and chanting to myself "Bees are our friends...."

Putting a frame together