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Friday, July 15, 2011

Swarm of Bees

The kids discovered a bazillion bees on our trampoline. I really hope our hive didn't decide to swarm! From my estimation, it looks like about 4 lbs. worth of bees, so it could be. 

I need Michael to get home so he can check on the hive. 
Any suggestions for us?


17 comments:

MAYBELLINE said...

Stay off the trampoline.

Unknown said...

Always such practical advice!

Corn and Wine said...

did you peek in your hive to see if the hive is smaller in numbers? This time of year, your hive should be FILLED with bees. If not, then it's swarmed.

Once a hive swarms, the only thing you can do is establish a new hive with the homeless swarm on your trampoline. Do you have an extra hive body? If so, just hold it under the swarm and scrape them off into the body, then put the lid on. Leave the hive there so if there are any stragglers outside, they'll find their way in. Plus, you want to make sure the queen got in the box and if she didn't get in the first time, she'll find her way in the hive.

Let me know if I can help further.

Dree said...

I have friends who caught their own swarm! Though they had to have a friend with another box come over and do it for them. They were thrilled!

And yeah, stay off the trampoline. Glad they found it before they started bouncing :)

Unknown said...

Yes Michelle, you can help further, come do it for me! I'm just waiting for Michael to get home, he is the bee guy. I wouldn't be able to tell if part of our bees have swarmed.

Unknown said...

Dree, the kids actually found it BECAUSE they started jumping. It was such a nice swarm, nobody got stung.

Corn and Wine said...

If I lived closer, I'd sure come over and take care of it for you. :) The good thing about swarms like this is that since they don't have a home to protect, they are very docile. You can get really close and observe them. There are scout bees out looking for a new home for them. It's cool to see them come back to the swarm because they'll do a waggle dance to tell the rest of the bees where a possible new home is. Once they all decide on where to go, they'll all take off and go there. So the swarm may be there for just a few hours or a few days. They won't hurt you, though. It would be cool if you could start a new hive from them, though. Let me know if I can help from a distance.

Unknown said...

I was really hoping I could adopt the swarm, but they were gone before Michael was able to come and help. :(

Kassie said...

Bummer about them leaving. We had our hive swarm last year but we were able to catch them. This year we thought one of our hives was swarming again, but it turned out to be from somewhere else. We caught it and the other 2 swarms that came into our yard this year. We got three new hives from out of the blue! Sky, that is. LOL

Unknown said...

Next time it happens, I need to have a hive ready and waiting! Kassie, you are so lucky.

Anonymous said...

How was your hive? We want to start with bees so badly but DH is afraid of them taking over. Ha ha

daisy g said...

This has been a fascinating list of comments. Oh, I have so much to learn!

Tracy said...

It IS fascinating! I don't think I've ever seen a bee swarm, and someone caught two in one year? That's amazing! We just moved into our home and started urban homesteading this year. Garden and chickens this year, I'd like to do bees, but just working one step at a time!

Kassie said...

Marisa, we are so lucky. Thankfully we had some friends with extra boxes we could use until we got some more put together. I have been longing to do more 'homesteading' type activities, and getting frustrated because I could see it isn't going to happen like I envisioned. I was brooding over that one day and realized that goats, cows and chickens are a full time job, needing to be cared for 24/7. I realized I just need to learn to help my DH work with our bees and it can become my hobby and perhaps a source of additional income, and to quit worrying about the rest at this point in time. So I suited myself up and you know what? I wasn't scared or nervous working with them at all. A victory for me!

Mandie said...

I am glad you were able to get a photo. How great to see. My husband has always wanted to have bees.

bandwidow said...

Loved reading the play by play...was your husband able to tell whether or not they were in fact yours?

Unknown said...

Michael said that we had just as many bees in our hive as the last time he checked, so luckily it wasn't our hive.