Two weeks later: Eggs in my swarm hive!

Saturday (April 21st) was the fourteenth day that my swarm colony has been in their new hive. If you remember, this swarm was from one of my own hives, and they landed 20 feet from their former home. Saturday was the second time I had checked this colony since I caught them. I also checked them at the one week mark, and while they were drawing comb, I could not find any new eggs on the three frames I moved from the other well established hive.  

Here is a frame where I found the new eggs. As you can see, there is some capped brood from this frame that I moved, but I also found brand new eggs scattered around it too. The frame was so full of bees, I had to gently blow on them to move them around. But at just the right angle with the sun behind me, I finally saw the tiny white eggs at the bottom of the cells. And with the worker bees building new comb on the other frames, the queen will soon be able to lay more eggs to keep this colony thriving.

As you can see, I seriously need to get some deep hive bodies. I'm still using two honey supers stacked on top of one another to act as a hive. My trip to Dadant in Chatham, Virginia, was sidetracked this past week because of work. But I'll have to make time soon because the bees in my swarm hive are building a lot of comb to fill in the extra space. I was tempted to go ahead and scrape all the excess comb off, but decided to just leave it so the bees will stop working to replace it and concentrate on finishing the task of drawing out the empty frames. The excess comb won't go to waste. I'll melt it down and use the wax on the frames in the hives. I'm getting ready to experiment with foundationless frames in my honey supers, so the wax will come in handy.

So overall, I believe this colony is doing well and I'll continue to check them in weekly increments. I'll have to in order to fight the burr comb until I can get them moved into a proper hive.

On a side note, I received a local swarm call on Saturday afternoon. A woman contacted my father and said she had a swarm of bees at her house. When I called her, she told me that the bees were in her fireplace chimney and somehow getting inside the house. A deputy Sheriff was at her home (they called the Sheriff's Office and asked for help) and he's the one that told her to call me, a local beekeeper. Based on her description, the bees were located deep in the chimney, so I knew there was little I could do for her. She said bees were flying in her house and crawling on the carpet, so I told her that the first priority was to plug the hole where they were coming through so no one would get stung. Then I told her that she would probably have to get an exterminator to kill them. It broke my heart to tell her that. If the bees had been in an outer wall or more accessible, maybe I could have done more. But with them being deep in a chimney and getting inside the house, there isn't much I or anyone else could do. But above all, the family's safety comes first. I thanked her for calling a beekeeper and I also appreciate the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office for thinking of me when it comes to saving the bees. 

Partially Africanized bees found in eastern Tennessee!

VONORE, Tennessee – Tennessee’s first case of partially Africanized bees was confirmed through genetic testing last week in a colony belonging to a beekeeper in Monroe County. The colony has been depopulated and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture is working with beekeepers in the area to determine if other bees could have been affected.

State Apiarist, Mike Studer, says it is no surprise that partially Africanized bees have made their way to Tennessee considering they have already been found in other states such as Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida. “I’m actually surprised it’s just now happening. We have been expecting this for some time,” Studer said. “Citizens need to be vigilant, but there’s no need to overreact. This is a situation that can be effectively managed through good beekeeping practices.

“We will be working with beekeepers to monitor their hives and to look for any signs of other aggressive bees in the area.”

Test results show that genetically, the bees were less than 17 percent Africanized, far less than the 50 percent considered by USDA to be truly Africanized. The bee colony was purchased by the beekeeper last year from an out-of-state dealer.

The most important difference between an Africanized honey bee and our domestic European honeybee is their behavior. Africanized bees are much more aggressive, defend their nests more fiercely and in greater numbers and are more likely to defend the nest when threatened by predators or adverse environmental conditions. But, the sting from a single Africanized bee is no more venomous than a European honey bee.

Africanized bees tend to colonize in smaller spaces than the docile European honeybee. Therefore, if you see honeybees in the ground, or in small openings such as flower pots or bluebird houses leave them alone and call the state apiarist immediately to assess the situation. Bees do not try to hurt people, they simply defend their territory.

If you do disturb an Africanized honeybee colony, follow these steps to protect yourself.

1. Run.

2. Cover your head with your shirt or jacket while running because Africanized bees tend to sting the face and head.

3. Never stand still or get boxed into a place outdoors where you cannot escape the attack.

4. Seek immediate shelter in an enclosed building or vehicle. Isolate yourself from the bees.

5. Do not attempt to rescue a victim without the proper protective gear and training. Doing so could make you the second victim.

State law requires all beekeepers register their colonies with the TDA and to update their registration every three years. Once registered, the state apiarist is able to contact beekeepers in the event of a disease outbreak or aerial pesticide spraying in their area. Registration also gives the beekeepers the opportunity for free inspections to make sure their colonies are healthy. Registration can be done online.

For more information on TDA’s Apiary Section or to register a bee colony, visitwww.TN.gov/agriculture/regulatory/apiary.html

*Photo by the USDA shows an Africanized honey bee on the left and a European honey bee on the right.

My first swarm catch of 2012? MY VERY OWN BEES!

Saturday started out really great. I already had my day planned; Mow the yard, reverse the hive chambers on all four honey bee colonies, get a haircut and follow up on my taxes. Well I made it through the yard mowing without a hitch, then went inside to make some sugar syrup for my hand sprayer. As soon as I finished, I went back outside and as I approached the building that houses my beekeeping supplies, I hear this really intense high-pitched buzzing. And when I looked up, the air was full of bees. You guessed it, one of my hives was in full swarm mode! It was the yellow hive which holds an Italian colony I bought in 2011.

Afraid to take my eyes off of them for fear I would lose their flight path, I just stood there and was prepared to say goodbye forever. I stood behind the yellow hive amongst the cloud of bees in a tee-shirt and track pants and carefully watched. And while bees were flying virtually everywhere, I noticed a lot of them flying towards the fence at my neighbors house. Continuing to watch them, I noticed that once they hovered in, they would fly to the middle of a wild crabapple bush at the corner of the fence. So I walked over to investigate, and sure enough, there they were.

20 feet from their former home, my traveling swarm landed on a couple of limbs in my next door neighbor's wild crabapple bush. How much luckier could I get? The only issue for me would be to make sure I could retrieve them since wild crabapple bushes are full of nasty thorns. So while it was a fine respite for them, it might be a pain for me. But thankful they were so close, I started gathering up my tools to get them back including the bottle of syrup, a cardboard nuc, a small step ladder and my bee brush.

While I was gathering my tools, the swarm settled down significantly into the customary ball. I then told my neighbor what was going on (her first words.."poor Mark"). Getting back to the swarm, it was easily three pounds of bees and they were on a prominent limb in the bush. The only real issue was trimming the smaller limbs away so I could get the box under the swarm ball and not get stuck by the thorns. After about 10 minutes of trimming, I could easily get the cardboard nuc under the swarm.

After giving them a healthy spraying of sugar syrup, and holding a tight grip on the box, I grabbed the limb and gave it a hefty downward jolt. Plop! The bees fell right into the box as planned. While quite a few went airborne, the majority were inside the box, so I felt like it was a success. But as I looked on the ground below the bush, there were quite a few there too. My fear was that the queen may be among the ones on the ground, so I immediately placed the nuc on the ground and placed the lid back on top. 

As soon as I placed the nuc near the bees on the ground, the parade began. I've always been in awe of watching swarms as they crawl their way into a hive, and I wasn't disappointed this time. Slowly and surely, the bees made their way to the small hole in the cardboard box. I was also hoping that if the queen did happen to miss the box, she would crawl with her daughters into the temporary mobile home. And after about an hour, most of the bees were inside the box with the exception of the ones fanning their wings outside to tell the rest of the crew, "Hey girls..we're over here!"

The next dilemma was..what was I going to put them in? All I had left was new shallow honey supers and no complete deep hive set ups. So knowing that two shallow supers was about the same size as a deep, I put two of them together. I did have two solid bottom boards, so after putting one on the bottom, I realized I didn't have a top. So I improvised by putting an inner cover over the two supers, then I made a temporary top with another bottom board turned upside down. To block up the top entrance, I put an entrance reducer there.

As you can see, it all fit together perfectly. With three frames of brood that I took from my other hives (to hopefully keep the swarm from absconding), and filling up the hive with plastic frames, I closed it all together and put three landscaping bricks on top to keep the lid from blowing off. I am especially curious about how this situation is going to work out. The swarm is only a few feet from where they left just hours before, so I was curious if the bees would travel back to the old hive to visit. I guess we'll see for sure, but I can tell you that 24-hours later, all is fine and the bees have been busy all day flying in and out just like normal. So I take that as a good sign that things will be okay.

I've been waiting to see if I would get a swarm call this year. And I really think it's funny that my first swarm for the year was for my very own bees. So now it looks like I'll be making the trip to nearby Dadant & Sons in Chatham, Virginia, to pick up some new hive set ups. After all, swarm season is very much underway, and I've learned an important lesson; Its better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. 

Why you should always call a friendly beekeeper FIRST!

In my quest to help save the honey bees, with every question I get I always try to use it was a learning experience. I always tell people that the bees are our friends and here to help us in countless ways, so we should always do whatever we can to help them in return. That includes saving them when they swarm or move where they're not wanted.

Last year I had a couple of calls from people who had bees in their homes and wanted to get rid of them. They didn't want to kill them, only move them. And when I told them that I knew a few cut out beekeepers who would come and remove the bees for a small charge or no charge, but they (the homeowners) would be responsible for any repairs, the next question was always, "But what if I just stop up the hole so they can't get in or out? Can't I just kill them and be rid of them that way?"

That's when I seize the moment to tell people that's not the way to handle it, that if the bees die, they are going to have a huge mess from the aftermath. I always tell them that as long as the bees are alive, the nest is air conditioned. But when they die, all that oozing honey, the melted wax and smell has to go somewhere...not to mention the ants, roaches and mice who will come around to dine on the free eats. Most elect to allow a cut out beekeeper to save them the hassle and take care of the issue.

Here's a video of someone who decided to take it upon themselves to kill a colony in an old apartment building. The video, from beekeeper JPtheBeeMan on Youtube, shows several cans of wasp and hornet killer, a can of spray foam, and thousands of dead bees in the apartment. Did they get rid of the bees? No. The owner ended up calling a beekeeper anyway, but by that time it was too late. The bees were contaminated from all those pesticides and I understand the colony ended up dying. If the owner had just called the beekeeper to begin with, she could have saved herself a lot of time and the bees would have lived and found a new home.

I've already posted this on my Facebook and will use it in the future when people ask if they could just try to get rid of the bees themselves. This should be a training video for beekeepers to use when trying to educate the public about why they should not try to "do it yourself" when it comes to removing squatter honey bees!  

My new swarm colony from Danville is doing GREAT!

The Danville, Virginia, swarm that I caught a little over a week ago is doing really well.  I admit that I was a little worried after this catch. After all, in just one day they landed on a stake, then I placed them in a cardboard nuc, moved them to North Carolina at night, then kept them in my storage building overnight.  The first thing on my mind when I woke up the next day was getting those bees in a permanent hive - then pray they would stay put.

As soon as it warmed up some (and I had a couple of cups of coffee), I got everything ready.  That included putting the feeder on the front and getting the frames inside the hive so the bees could start building their new home.  I added some clean "used" frames (ones that came from a previous colony which had been scraped clean) along with brand new frames sprayed with sugar syrup.  With everything set up, all I would have to do now would be to move the frames out of the cardboard nuc to the new blue hive.

Here are the bees after I added them to the hive.  The white, plastic frames are the ones that were inside the cardboard nuc.  When I opened the nuc to remove the frames, the bees were extremely calm and very few of them flew around.  Unfortunately I didn't see a queen, but based on their very calm demeanor, I believe the queen was in residence anyway.  As soon as I got the bees settled into the new hive, I started to shut everything up.

Here you see the new colony as they get their bearings.  Once I got the inner cover on the hive, the girls started peeking out.  While this was probably a good sign, I was also a little apprehensive that they could still be in swarm mode.  So I hurried to get everything shut up so they could settle down.  I put the hive top on and covered it with a paving stone to weigh it down so the wind won't blow it off in a storm.  Oh, and I kept my fingers crossed all day that they would stay put! 

I went back about a half-hour later and found that the girls were already flying some.  And oddly enough, they ventured out and took to the air faster than the colony I bought from Dadant.  Before I left for work later in the afternoon, I noticed that air bubbles were rising in the feeder bottle every few minutes, so I knew they were taking the sugar syrup.  And now, a little over a week later, they're taking one bottle of sugar syrup per day.

With the addition of the Danville bees, I now have four colonies in my back yard apiary.  The Danville bees occupy the blue hive, the package from Dadant is in the yellow hive, and the green and orange hives are last year's stock.  But there may be some news as far as the green and orange hives.  With spring came the abundance of swarm cells in both hives, and I can't find my marked queens from 2010.  I saw a new queen in the orange hive weeks ago, and now I'm finding frame after frame of eggs, larvae and capped brood.  The green hive may be in trouble, but I'm working with them and hope to have good news soon.  More on those hives later!

Once again I would like to thank the Jacob, Barbara and Kimberly Hairston of Danville for helping to save another colony of bees!  Good job!

Bee vigilent everybody!

Got my first (and only) swarm this year thanks to a Virginia family!

So far this has been a slow year for me getting calls about honeybee swarms.  Although I've talked about the swarm season on my television shows, and even advertised my website through Facebook, I've only had a few nibbles.  And most of those were from people who had bees in precarious places like the walls of their houses or chimneys.  Last year I had all sorts of swarm sightings reported to me, but this year, it has been a little slow.  I was beginning to think the bees had let the swarm season pass..at least in my case anyway.   

That all changed this past Wednesday, May 18th.  I received a text message and phone call from a coworker, Bruce Hedrick, who said that a lady called our office in Danville, Virginia, and said a swarm of bees landed at her house.  I called her and spoke with a very nice lady named Barbara who said that the bees were on a stake in her yard and close to the ground.  She told me the bees must have landed there Tuesday or earlier that morning and they were still there.  When she told me that the bees were close to the ground, I became concerned that they may not be honey bees at all and could be yellow jackets instead.  To help me decide the identity, honey bees versus yellow jackets, Barbara said that her daughter could send me a picture with her cell phone.  So and after a few minutes, I got the picture and sure enough they were honey bees.  So Barbara and I talked again and I told her I would be on the way to her house.  So I packed up my overalls, a spray bottle of 1:1 sugar syrup, and a cardboard "nuc" and then I headed north to Danville.


When I got there after the 24 mile trip, sure enough the bees were waiting for me at the edge of the yard.  They were so gentle that I stood really close to them and they didn't even budge.  I met with Barbara who told me that recently her family noticed that honey bees were drinking from the birdbath in her front yard, so that led me to believe that the colony was fairly close before they swarmed.  And with Wednesday being the first really sunny day without rain in about a week, the bees knew it was time to hit the road.  So I suited up, soaked the bees with the sugar syrup, then I gently pulled the stake out of the ground.  All I had to do at that point was gently shake the bees off the stake and they plopped right into the nuc.  It was a very easy job!

Some of the bees that were on the ground near the bottom of the stake were still in the grass. But once the bees in the nuc got their bearings after being plopped in the box, it didn't take long for them to come out of the hole and start fanning their scent into the air.  Of course that attracted their sisters to come inside, and that's when a mini parade began towards the entrance.  I stayed for a little while to make sure everything was okay and secure the box, then I told Barbara I would come by around nightfall and collect the nuc while all of the bees were inside.

So once it started to get dark, I went back to Virginia to get the bees.  Once I arrived and suited up, I slowly opened the top of the nuc and found a box full of honey bees.  After one last stray bee made her way inside, I put the plastic cap on the entrance and taped the top on the box to make sure the lid wouldn't come off while I'm traveling back home.  The bees were lively inside the temporary hive, and as soon as I picked it up -- they started making the steady hum of an active colony.  

After I loaded the bees in the truck, I stayed for a few minutes and talked to Barbara and her husband and daughter.  In the front of me is the bird bath that Barbara told me acted as the watering source for the bees.  Apparently the bees would fly to the bird bath and sit on the edge and drink the water that would collect there.  Knowing that bees will usually go to the closest water source, that's what led me to believe that the colony was housed somewhere close by.

Meet the Hairston family.  That's Jacob, Barbara in the middle, and Kimberly, their daughter.  Barbara told me that they knew I kept bees because they've heard me talking about it on my television shows.  And I also found out that Kimberly found my blog and website so she did some reading up on beekeeping and swarms.  The Hairstons are extremely nice people who decided to help save the honey bees by calling a beekeeper.  And I just happened to be the lucky beekeeper who got the call to go to their house.  It was a pleasure meeting them and I hope to see them again soon.  Thanks again for helping the bees, and thanks to Kim for the pictures of me picking up the bees!

I got the bees home and kept them in my storage building overnight.  Then on Thursday morning, I hived them.  More on that (complete with pictures) in my next post.  But so far, so good.  

A "sting" operation with a colony of bees and a North Carolina deputy sheriff!

(Wake County, North Carolina): A sheriff's deputy was trapped in his car for three hours as tens of thousands of honeybees swarmed his vehicle.

Wake County deputy sheriff, Brandon Jenkins, answered a distress call of a disabled truck in the middle of the night. The vehicle was pulling a trailer of honeybee hives. As he helped load some of the broken boxes of bees back on the truck, they began to get irritable.

Jenkins, who took refuge in his squad car, could only watch as about 50,000 of the stingers swarmed over it. Wake County sheriff's spokeswoman Phyllis Stevens said: "They were confused, without their queen, they swarmed the police car probably because that was the biggest thing around that they could find."

The deputy even had to resort to deadly force when a few of the intruders got inside. "It was more or less self-defense," he said. " There were a couple of bees in my personal space, my comfort zone, and I just wanted to get them out."

Jennifer Keller, a beekeeping expert from North Carolina State University, was called to help and sprayed sugar water on the insects so they would lick each other and regroup, making it easier for the insects to be returned to their hives.

"I had never seen anything quite like that," Keller said. "The bees had nowhere to go. I guess they used the car as a resting spot ... I got one sting. I struck a bee, so it was my own fault."

Wake County surrounds Raleigh, the state capital of North Carolina.

White House hit by swarm of bees...

(CNN) – The Secret Service is always on the alert for aerial assaults - but on Thursday, White House grounds were hit by one unexpected airborne threat.

A swarm of honey bees took over a bush located between the Northwest security gate of the White House and the area where television networks stand-up positions are located early Thursday.

CNN photojournalist John Bodnar said he came through the Northwest gate around 12:30 pm and was warned about the bees by Secret Service on duty in the guard post. "I walked out and thought it was a swirl of blossoms blowing in the wind, but turns out it was a swarm of bees," he says. Half an hour later, they were still issuing warnings."

White House carpenter Charlie Brandts, who is also a beekeeper and will be managing two bee hives in Michelle Obama's garden, came over to the area around shortly before 2 pm wearing protective gear and carrying a cardboard box. Brandts was reportedly able to get the queen bee in the cardboard box and many, though not all, of the other bees followed. CNN has not yet been able to confirm the capture of the winged invaders.

The picture above is of one of the hives in the garden of the White House in Washington, D.C.

Got another swarm call! This colony moved into an apartment!

Wednesday is normally a relatively mild day for me. I like Wednesday because not too much is usually going on at work and then the weekend will be here before you know it. But my office called and said that the manager of a local apartment complex, West End Plaza Apartments, wanted to know if I would like some bees they found on the property. So I took the number and called them back but got no answer, so since the complex is about five minutes from my house, I decided to ride over to see where the swarm was located and what equipment I would need.

When I arrived, I met Tammy, who is the complex manager. I also met Dave who is the maintenance manager who took me to see the bees. When I got the call, I was thinking that maybe the bees were on a tree limb or maybe a swing set at the complex. Boy was I wrong. No, the bees in question had become squatters on the apartment complex property and had moved -- into the building! Apparently they found a hole at the corner of one of the buildings and liked it so much that they decided to move in. 

Knowing that the project was more than I really wanted to do, I politely declined. But I told Dave I knew someone who would probably take them, so I called my good buddy Jared Watkins in Winston Salem, who had previously told me he would like to do a cut-out sometime. Jared's been itching to use his homemade bee-vaccum and to do an extraction -- so when I called him he agreed to come up and sure enough, he got here about an hour later.

Upon Jared's arrival, here's the greeting he got! The bees in the apartment were in full swarm mode and piling out of the hole. Remembering the story that noise will settle swarming bees, the people that lived in the apartment gave Jared some pots and pans, and he banged on them to settle them down. And luckily, it worked. When I arrived a few minutes later, the bees were hanging on the bricks and headed back into the hole in the building. Knowing that dusk would arrive soon and that it was going to take awhile to get the bees out of the building, Jared decided it would be best to come back on Thursday and remove the bees.

Here I am looking out the window as the bees settle back into their home in the wall. Dave the maintenance guy pulled back the carpet so we could try to listen and find their exact location (we could hear the buzzing through the carpet) -- and when he did, Jared pointed out a bee who was making her way through a hole in the floor. So it was obvious that they were right there between the floor joists or along the wall somewhere. And we were right, when they pulled the floor up on Thursday, the bees were in a relatively small space in the corner.


Due to prior plans, I couldn't be there on Thursday. But Jared was able to get some help from Greg who is a fellow beekeeper in Forsyth County, and Dave, the apartment complex's maintenance manager. So when the three pulled the floor boards up, there they were. Jared told me later that it was a small colony, maybe three to four pounds or the size of a package you would buy. And believe it or not, even with all the pulling and prying, he said they were pretty laid back. And get this, he also said that this wasn't the first colony that had inhabited this small corner space before; they found old comb there that indicated that prior squatters had checked in before. And the old comb had signs that a mouse had been there. Maybe the old comb is what attracted the bees to the spot this week.

Using the homemade bee-vac, Jared and Greg were able to vacuum up the girls from the floor space and later put them into the 8-frame boxes that Jared prefers to use. They also cleaned up what old and new comb was there and then all that would be left to do would be to take them to their new location which is near the Smith Reynolds Airport in Winston Salem (named after the son of tobacco magnate, R.J. Reynolds). Jared said that while the bees were laid back while being evicted, their mood changed and they were a tad testy once they got to their new home. Well you do have to admit, they had been through a rough day with being sucked into a vacuum cleaner and eventually evicted from their nice apartment complex. But maybe once they settle down they'll like their new home in the country better. Besides they'll never have to catch a cab to get to the airport.

To keep future bees from moving in the space again, Dave the maintenance guy filled in the opening with expanding spray foam. As you can see, a few of the returning foragers found their entrance blocked off...and I'm sure they were totally confused by it all. I mean, you leave during the morning and when you come home, this white foam is blocking you out. I am sure it was a "what the heck" moment.

While I was there on Wednesday, I praised Dave and the staff at the apartment complex for calling a beekeeper and not killing the colony. Come to find out, Dave's uncle is a beekeeper in the county whom I've met before and is a really nice guy, so he knows the value of helping the honey bees. And Tammy, the manager, once had three honey bee hives herself! So good job to Dave and Tammy and the staff at West End Plaza Apartments. And great job to Jared and Greg for taking the time to catch a wayward swarm and giving them a new home.

And an extra thanks to Jared for sharing his pictures so I could tell the tale!

Easy come, easy GO! My first swarm catch hits the road!

When I went to bed on Sunday night, I figured Monday would be just like any other Monday...and that's really busy. And I wasn't disappointed in the least. But I got a great surprise around 9 o'clock Monday morning. That's when one of the guys that works in my office called the house to say that a public school in the county had a swarm of honey bees on a picnic table and wanted them gone and would I be interested in getting them. The answer was a resounding YES! 

I called the Rockingham County High School which is 8-miles from my house and in the county seat of Wentworth. The school's secretary told me they did in-fact have a swarm on the school grounds. She told me they were under a picnic table and they would like to give them away to a good home. She said one of the teachers heard me talk on my television show about being a beekeeper, so they immediately thought of me and wanted me to come get them. I told her it would take me a few minutes to get there, so I ran and loaded up an empty hive and a spray bottle of syrup and my veil and headed to the school. When I got there about a half hour later, I was met by a friend who is the school resource officer (a deputy sheriff assigned to guard the school). Jeff Strader, the deputy and one of my former co-workers at the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office, guided me to a courtyard just outside of the school cafeteria. And there they were...a big, golden blob of honeybees.

The colony had landed under the end of a picnic table. A teacher told me that they weren't there on Friday afternoon, so its obvious they found their new digs sometime over the weekend. They were very docile, there wasn't any flying around, they were tightly clumped and very still. I got very close to check them out and they never flinched with my bare face just inches from them. So I decided to put on my coveralls and veil and go to work to get them in the hive.

Here's a closer look at the wayward colony. As you can see, the cluster is a little smaller than a basketball. They were in a perfect spot, under the edge of the table at the end...a great place to put the empty hive. So I sprayed the colony really well with sugar syrup, then I picked up the edge of the table and let it drop. The cluster plopped right into the empty hive. By this time, one of the classes stopped what they were doing to come out and watch. Ron Wheeler's automotive technology class watched intently while I collected the stray colony. The students were quiet as church mice until I dropped the table -- then all you heard was "ohhhhhs" and "ahhhhhs" from the future auto mechanics. I felt a little uncomfortable at first, not for their safety but because I was catching my first swarm and now I had an audience watching my every move. But they were super and quiet and asked some really great questions later. They were a great audience. 

Here you see the bees as they were dropped into the hive. Once they fell, most stayed inside and some perched on the top of the frames and went to work fanning their pheremones into the air. And for the first time in two years of beekeeping, I got stung. It was my own fault, I squashed a bee with my bare hand that I didn't see. She was on my leg and when I put my hand over her, she got me on the edge of my hand. I scraped the stinger out with my hive tool. I also carry sting swabs in my tool box so I put one on the sting spot and it didn't hurt anymore. Those sting swabs are great.

I waited about 45 minutes for the stragglers to find their way back and then I put the top on the hive. Once I noticed some coming and going from the entrance, and since it was getting close to lunchtime when more students would be around, I decided to stuff my glove in the entrance, load my girls in the truck, and head for home. There were few bees still lingering around the table when I left, but to make sure no one would get stung, I helped Jeff put yellow caution tape around the picnic area to keep the kids out for the rest of the day.

I've read hundreds of accounts of catching swarms, and watched countless YouTube videos too. So feeling pretty confident that I did everything right, I got the bees to my house and put them in their place of honor next to my other bustling colony in the "lemon" hive. I put an entrance reducer on the front and then made some sugar syrup and put a hive top feeder on. I pictured them getting started on drawing comb and living like - well - queens. End of story. Right?

WRONG! After an hour of watching the occasional bee come and go -- all of a sudden, one bee, then tens of bees, then hundreds of bees and then thousainds of bees came boiling out of the hive. No, this wasn't an orientation flight buzz of bees...this was a swarm of bees. My honey bees, my very first swarm catch, the colony I had every intention of turning into a thriving metropolis...had other ideas and decided to hit the road yet again. And all I could do is stand by helplessly and watch them take to the sky. Honestly it broke my heart to watch them leave and to know that my hard work was pretty much all for nothing.


Just across the creek from my hive is where they landed. They were up about 20-feet off the ground and landed on the side of a pine tree entangled with vines and poison sumac. I watched them perched there for about a half-hour, then I went inside and made a few phone calls, and when I returned to check on them, they were gone. I saw a few bees flying around the spot where they landed, but for the most part, the colony had disappeared. I'm not sure if this pine tree has a hollow spot in it, and for all I know they could be deep inside it, but I don't think so. I just hope they like their new place...wherever that may be.

If I get another call tomorrow to come get an escaped colony of bees, I will do it in a heartbeat. Am I disappointed? Of course I'm disappointed, but I look at it as a two way learning experience. I learned how to catch a swarm, and the students at Rockingham County High School learned that saving the honeybees is extremely important. A school is a place of learning, and besides teaching the young people valuable lessons, I learned one on Monday too. It was an experience I wouldn't take anything for even though it didn't work out like I hoped.

On to other news, next week I'm getting another queen from Busy Bee Apiary...and I'm planning to split my current colony. I'm just hoping and I've got my fingers crossed that I'll have better luck with my split than I had with the swarm from the high school.

Thanks to the staff at Rockingham County High School for thinking of me when they found the swarm, and if another colony drops in anytime soon, please keep me in mind. My motto is; Have hive, will travel!

Has Mother Nature decided for me? Okay, beeks, I need your help!

Today (Sunday) was such a beautiful day that decided to get out and do a quick inspection. I've been keeping my fingers crossed that my colony would do well and thrive for the next few weeks, but not get the itch to swarm. But I've had a deep feeling that since this colony is a booming colony, their natural urge to swarm would kick in before I could make a manual split. They still have lots of room in both chambers, but I noticed that they're loading up the upper chamber with pollen and the queen was laying really well in the bottom brood box. Matter of fact, when I examined the top deep first, I could tell the queen had laid here and there, and I was feeling a little disappointed that she may be giving out by the spotty laying pattern. But when I got to the bottom brood chamber, she was laying like a champ and in a tight, consistent pattern on most of the frames. Capped brood was everywhere as well as larvae. 

But before I get too far ahead of myself, let me show you what else I found. Look closely at the photo and just above my website brand. I think that's a queen cell they're making in the upper deep. My photography isn't the best here as I was by myself, but if you could have seen this from my angle...the cell had a downward, protruding shape. And as you can see, there is a larvae inside and several nurse bees were busy attending to it. I didn't find any other possible queen cells, just this one, but I did find bunches of drone cells on several frames. And one of the drones was making a fierce racket while I was checking out the frames. Overall they were in a decent mood, a little testy, but I've seen worse.

Of course you can click on any of the pictures to get a better view. And while you're at it, take a look at this picture on the left. That's a little better view of what I believe is a queen cell. And you can see the bees checking on it. While my first instinct was to take my hive took and tear it off, I decided that might not be the wise thing to do. Beekeepers with a lot more experience than me say that it is never wise to rip the queen cells off because if the old queen has already left with a handful of her daughters or is dead or whatnot, then the hive could be queenless and doomed if you do that. So I decided to leave the cell alone and check it again in a few days to see if they finish the job and cap it and see it takes on the unmistakable appearance of a classic queen cell.

While it may be too late to keep this colony from swarming, I've decided that I may be able to buy some time by adding empty frames to keep them occupied for awhile. I added another deep with new frames (plastic foundation) so they can have a head start in case I do get to make a manual split. And if they do swarm on their own, at least I'll have some already drawn frames for when I find another swarm or get more bees. Oh, and I added the empty hive to the left of my current one. I've read that in quite a few instances, bees that swarm will go to nearby empty hives and settle in as opposed to traveling far away. So maybe if they decide to hit the road, they'll find that there's an empty house next door and ready for occupancy.

Okay, gang, I need your help!

Take a good look at the two pictures that shows the "suspicious" cell at the bottom of the frame. Does this look like a queen cell to you? And how would you handle this situation if you were me? Would you have cut the cell out? Or would you leave it alone?

I'm open for all ideas and suggestions. So lay it on me! All ideas welcome!

The swarm hive boxes may have arrived in time. I found "scouts" at my office!

Talk about a slow day at work. I figured with it being a holiday weekend that it would be pretty slow, but little did I know it would be painfully slow. As many of you know, I do news and talk shows for our local television station, and on both talk segments I had tonight, the time just dragged on. My guess is that a lot of people headed out of town for the weekend. I can't say I blame them, with the weather being gorgeous for the last few days, the beach had to be even better.

So during my long break (ten minutes between segments) I decided to go into the courtyard behind our office building and just chill out for a few minutes. The courtyard is completely enclosed and can't be accessed from the street or by the public, just our station personnel and the gun shop owners next door. The courtyard sits under this small tower that sends our signal by microwave relay to a 500 foot tower and antenna which is about 12 miles away. This little courtyard is a great little place to relax for a few minutes and just unwind.

But while I was taking my break, I kept noticing some flying insect examining the cracks in the brick firewall that isolates the courtyard. It would fly up, then down, and all side by side along the cracks -- then it would disappear for a few minutes. But then all of a sudden, this insect was back and doing it all over again. Initially I thought it may have been a bumblebee or carpenter bee. But no, it was too small to be those, but it was too big to be a yellowjacket. So I got closer and waited for it to land, and it finally did. To my surprise, it was a honey bee!

I watched her for a few minutes to see what she was doing. And finally I decided that it had to be a "scout" bee. I watched her carefully as she went from hole to hole in the brick wall. Then I found her going in one particular hole so I marked it in the mortar line between bricks.

You can see where I made a purple X mark on the bricks with my felt tip pen. Just to the left of my X and in the crack (where I added a red arrow) is one of the holes she was scouting. She went into the hole, came back out, flew around some, then went back inside. I'm assuming she was checking the possible accommodations for comfort and to see it is would be suitable as a new home. I went back into the station for a few minutes and when I came back out to check, she was back again and flying all along the wall. I'm just guessing that if she really was scouting this wall, she wanted to make darn sure that she found just the right spot. After all, she is a female, and has the right to change her mind. Eh, ladies?

After I got off the air at 7 o'clock, I went home and got a bottom board, 10-frame deep hive box, and a cover. This is the same hive equipment that arrived just yesterday from Brushy Mountain, so it looks like it may have arrived in the nick of time. It looks like their timing was perfect.

I didn't have any "store bought" swarm lure, but I've read stories where old-timers swear by Lemon Pledge. So I took the hive box and sat it between the two holes that I saw the scout frequent, and I soaked a cotton cloth in Lemon Pledge and put it inside the hive. Supposedly the bees that swarm will be drawn to the smell of the lemon oil because its the same kind of scent emitted by a swarm...and they follow their noses. And this new hive also has the fresh smell of beeswax inside that coats the new Pierco frames. So between the two odors, maybe the bees will be attracted to it and decide to move in. I have my fingers crossed anyway.

Whether or not I'll catch a swarm, I don't know. For all I know, maybe this was just a rogue bee who was being nosey or just killing some time before heading home for the night. But my hope (better yet..a wish) is that someone's hive may have swarmed and they're looking for a new home. Maybe since it was so close to night they decided to stay put overnight and will move tomorrow or before the weekend is over...and maybe into the television station's courtyard and right into my hive set-up. I'm hoping that when I check it out on Saturday or Sunday, I'll have a really nice surprise waiting for me. 

I'll keep you posted on my adventure. And I hope the news is good! 

A peek under the cover on a warm winter's day!

We've finally gotten a break from the frigid weather, thank goodness! The temperatures for the last couple of days have been more like spring than winter. On Friday, the temperature actually made it up to an almost balmy 61-degrees here. And while I'm loving it, I know that I shouldn't get too comfortable with it since it will turn cold again within the next few days. My wish is that we can ride out the rest of this winter with moderate weather and get out of this pattern that seems to be more suited for northern climates.

I took a peek outside just after lunch and found my girls flying all around the yard. While they would cover the entrance in spells it seemed, for the most part, they were flying everywhere. I noticed them flying by my kitchen window, through the mid-part of my yard, and all around the hive. Some would come out and spiral round and round and then take off in all different directions. So I figured this would be a great time to take a short peek inside the hive.

Without smoke, just my veil, I took the top off the hive and looked at the inner cover. Check out who was looking back. The top deep had girls all on the tops of the frames walking around and being busy. I figured that the intrusion would illicit a response, maybe flying out at me from the hole in the inner cover. But nary a bee seemed to be concerned with me at all. I was in a slight hurry and didn't take the inner cover off the chamber. Since everything looked fine, at least from this angle, I decided to leave them alone. The next warm day I'll go out and check a few of the frames to see how their honey is holding out and if I see any hive beetles lurking around. But for a quick peek, they looked fine. I closed up shop and put the bricks back on top of the hive so the wind won't blow the cover off.


If you click the first picture, you can see the bee at the top with her legs covered with pollen. Well here's another. Check her out as she landed on the hive stand. I have no clue where they found this pollen. I read on the Town Bees blog in Raleigh, North Carolina, that the dandelions were blooming there. So maybe my girls hit dandelion gold somewhere. I've checked my yard and haven't seen the first one yet, but maybe my neighbors have some.

Here you see a larger version of the same picture. She was just one of several that had pollen in her sacs as she made it back home. While they're a heck-of-a-lot smarter than me and know where their essentials can be found, I still think I'm going to scatter some powdered Mega Bee across their frames when I check the hive in a few days. And I'm toying with the idea of buying some Honey-B-Healthy for when I split this hive in a few months. While I have mixed emotions about the true usefulness of Honey-B-Healthy, it may not hurt since it has essential oils that helps the bees. We'll see.

So as you can see, all looks pretty good with my colony as of now. They seem to have fared well in this blast of wintry weather, and I think they're probably like me -- ready to get this blasted winter over with.

In other news; a co-worker asked if I would be interested in some bees in the chimney of a house that's 10-miles away in the city of Eden. The house belongs to a friend of his and he said that in the last few weeks, the bees will fly out of the entrance hole on warmer days. I told him I was ill-prepared to take a honey bee colony out of walls or masonary, but I would love to see them anyway. And get this, a man that runs a health food business in the same area told me that he has a colony living in the wall of his store..and I am welcome to take them if I can get to them. Unfortunately they're in a brick wall, down in a fire wall, between neighboring downtown businesses. 

Isn't it amazing that when people find out you're a beekeeper, they really want to give you the business? Maybe my very first swarm catch will be a little easier, maybe a low tree or some lawn furniture.