Thursday, April 21, 2016

Bee Story Continued

The still shot is of the swarm of bees that Dennis captured yesterday.  Swarming happens when a queen bee leaves the colony with a group of worker bees. The swarm is large but not the entire colony.  The swarm Dennis caught had around 5000,  at his guestimation.

The video was taken right after he basically placed a box, with a few frames from one of his better hives at home, directly under the branch then gave the branch a swift shake.  This caused the majority of the swarm to fall into the box. Unfortunately he was alone so he couldn't get a shot of the bees falling. 

When the bees hit the box it's then up to them as to whether they'll stay or not.  If they do you can tell when the bees turn their backside to you and begin flapping their wings in unison to air out the space. Honey bee spring cleaning before they move in! Dennis said that they have begun to create comb in the box as well so this is also a good sign they're going to stay.

So just for future reference,  if you see a bee swarm call your local extension office. They'll likely know a bee keeper who would be happy to move the swarm for you...or in this case an agent who'd like to bring them home with him!

Here's the link to the video.  You may need to copy and paste it into your browser. 

https://youtu.be/r2hGqNJAI9U

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