permaculture

["Margaret & Steven Eisenhauer" <eisenhauerdesign@earthlink.net>]

Bees in a swarm can be "angry" if they have been swarmed for several days
and have not yet found a home.  When they initially swarm, yes, they are
full of food/honey, but if they have not found suitable home after several
days, they can be hungry and not too happy if they are moved.

Putting that aside I'd like to share an amazing story that just happened to
me yesterday.  We have been keeping bees going on 4 years now.  Last spring,
we had 4-hives when I found a swarm right near our hives and after getting
fully bee-suited up, we were able to cut the branch they were clustered on
and then knock on the branch to drop them into the hive set-up we had
waiting right underneath them.  Voila, we now had a free hive!

Unfortunately, due to lack of food and varroa mites, none of our 5 hives
made it through this past winter, including the swarm.  I have 6 bee
packages on order that I'll be picking up next Saturday.  So, yesterday, I
was working in the apiary, going through the empty hives, scraping, cleaning
separating out frames that still have honey on them.  We'll use them to feed
the new bees.  While I was working, I started to hear a LOT of buzzing.  I'm
looking around, since the hives only had a few robber bees that had been
working with me and I knew they didn't make that much noise.  I look up and
in the air, almost over the tree where we found the swarm last year, there
was a huge amount of bees flying around in the air.  They were thousands of
them, just circling around.  Needless to say, I kept my distance of about 15
feet.  Then, to my surprise, they started congregating on the hive that had
held the swarm last year.  The clustered on the outside of the hive (I took
several pictures) and then, over the course of the next 3 hours, they went
into the hive and set up home.  I couldn't believe it!  We know that that
hive was completely empty because we broke it apart with a consultant, about
1 1/2 months ago and found a LOT of dead bees.  

Anyway, it was pretty magical.  And, I didn't get stung!  Don't know if that
happens all that often, but I checked out there today, and I can hear the
activity in the hive!

Anyone else ever have an experience like that?
I feel blessed.  All I can figure is that it's a very special spot.

Margaret

-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Stephen Sherman
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 2:55 PM
To: permaculture
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Catching bees?

The bees while in swarm are not territorial, as they usually are once 
they've settled in "their" hive. One can often scoop a swarm up, or 
shake it off a branch into a box without any reaction from the bees. The 
bees are full of honey, pretty calm, and mostly concerned with 
protecting the queen and finding a new home. Not fighting off intruders.

Many years ago I was going into a local hardware store. No one was using 
their main entrance because there was a swarm of bees on a tree branch 
just outside the door. I explained that in a swarm the bees were quite 
calm, but it didn't change anyone's opinion. So I offered to remove them 
if they could give me a cardboard box and a scrap of cardboard. I 
scooped and shoveled the swarm off the branch and into the box using the 
cardboard scrap; and then moved the box to the back of my station wagon. 
I didn't have any bee equipment with me, and did not get stung; although 
it was a bit crowded in the car on the way home. (I did have a spare 
hive ready for them at home though)

Steve

Dieter Brand wrote:
> Thanks Robin!  
>  
> Won't they sting me if I try to scoop them up?  Do I need protective
clothing to do that?
>  
> Dieter
>
>
>   

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