Honey Bees

Leadchunker said:
Sitting in the man cave having a snack yesterday. I had the door open to air out the house and I heard a loud roaring outside. Went out and a huge swarm was just beginning. I ran down the street after them and finally they stopped on a bush. They were 2 feet off the ground. One of the easiest swarms I ever caught.
Put them in a box and placed them in their new location. Yay!!!!
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were they yours to start with?
 
Yup, they were mine to start with. My plan was to start doing splits today since I have queens arriving tomorrow. I also have queen cells that need to go into colonies today and tomorrow.
The bees got started earlier than expected.
 
I’ve been busy doing splits and prepping Woodware. Caught 3 swarms so far, yay!
I caught one in Ash Sunday evening. It was on a Pine tree limb along the road. I stood in the back of the truck and used a 5gallon bucket on a pvc pipe. Took two tries to get most of them. They were pretty calm and went right into the box. I took off all my gear and waited for them to all go inside. It was starting to get dark and I was ready to go home.
There were a few stragglers still on the limb I wanted to get. I figured one last jar on the limb and I would be done. I hit the bottom of the pipe and it slipped off the limb. The bucket hit the limb instead and I missed catching the bees. The softball sized cluster of bees fell on top of my head. Things got a little exciting at that point. I grabbed my brush and proceeded to remove the unhappy bees. I only got stung eight times.
Lesson learned the hard way. 😂
 
Picked up nuc used and new nuc boxes in Sophia NC. Keith at Beez Needz took real good care of me.
Got a call from a farm I have bees on while on the trip. They have a swarm happening right now. I stopped in and boxed those girls and boxed another 100 yards away. I noticed another in a large Oak tree. It was about 40 foot high on a limb. I borrowed a bucket truck this morning and put those in a box. That’s a total of 7 swarms this year I’ve caught.
Picked up 38 more queens this morning from the post office.
It doesn’t seem like I’m retired for some reason.
 
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Miracles do happen. I went to the bee yard that was robbed yesterday to get some bee feed. I was going to pick up more of the abandoned boxes while I was there. I haven’t had the time to get everything off that site so I’m taking a little at a time.
The three boxes full of honey the thieves tossed were sitting in the same place. I was going to pick them up and carry them to another yard to let the bees rob them out. There was a lot of activity at the boxes. I figured robber bees. Nope! A swarm had moved in from somewhere and the box is slam full of bees. Yay me!
There are 10 more boxes on the yard so I decided to haul those off. I changed my mind real quick. I found I had swarms take up residence in 3 more of the boxes. Big time yay me!!!!
I am going to leave the other boxes there and pull all but one frame of drawn comb out of them. The rest of the frames will be just foundation.
We shall see what happens.
God is good!
 
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Well I went back and 2 more swarms moved into boxes. Yay!!! I need to move some bees off that yard. I will definitely be setting up swarm traps after I get all my fencing and hive stands moved.
Currently installing honey supers on production hives. Blackberries are all over at my new bee yard in Columbus County. I’m also moving nuc colonies into ten frame boxes. Spring nectar flow is finally starting.
 
More equipment moving yesterday. I should have all the hive stands completed today. Cut grass yesterday in a bee yard with the push mower for 4.3 miles. My rider mower and weed whacker are both in the shop.
Currently in my area dandelions, clover, and black berries are in full bloom. Ligustrum, and low bush Gallberry are just starting to bloom.
If you don’t have supers on by now you are missing the spring nectar flow.
 
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