everything was going well, until... with pics!

[JP]

Very nice bees in this here eave. Didn't have a lot of honey. I put a few combs down on a piece of cardboard and that's when all hell broke loose, sort of. The honey looked good and I was looking forward to trying it but somewhere nearby was another hive that thought the honeycomb I pulled out looked good to them and that's when the robbing started. I had already vacumed 2 full boxes of bees and half of another and there were probably 5-6,000 bees in the box with the queen, but I just kept seeing more and more bees and figured hey there must be some visitors here. Well, a quick survey revealed some robbing going on and I could see that the robbers were flying in from east of where this hive I removed was. Tomorrow if I get some time I will survey the area, perhaps I'll be able to find that other hive, probably a slim chance though but it doesn't hurt to try. Anyway, its always a good day when you get the queen! Hope ya'll enjoy the pics. Btw, my friend Bailey and his father n law had some excitement with a 911 swarm call! But that's his story to tell. Have a good one.

http://picasaweb.google.com/pyxicephalus/March52008Harahan

....JP

[annette]

That looked exciting. Love those photos of the queen. Always brings a smile to my face.

Annette

[Kathyp]

why the swarm trap?

[JP]

why the swarm trap?

2 reasons. 1) to catch the returning foragers 2) the bees in my area have been swarming and this is a hot place to hang a trap.

....JP

[deejaycee]

what a gorgeous hive.. love the way they smother that comb so evenly

gotta say, you do a real nice clean job of getting that comb out, JP

[JP]

Thanks Deejay! You are too kind. I have lots of fun and its lots of work, but the adrenalin flows always for more bees!!


....JP

[Joseph Clemens]

A quick and easy way to gather the bees in a nice location like that would be to spread a sheet, or suspend one just beneath the bees, then use a little ammonium nitrate fertilizer in a smoker to temporarily anesthetize them. Create a nice bag of groggy bees.

Nice photos of a superb colony.

[Mklangelo]

Very nice bees in this here eave. Didn't have a lot of honey. I put a few combs down on a piece of cardboard and that's when all hell broke loose, sort of. The honey looked good and I was looking forward to trying it but somewhere nearby was another hive that thought the honeycomb I pulled out looked good to them and that's when the robbing started. I had already vacumed 2 full boxes of bees and half of another and there were probably 5-6,000 bees in the box with the queen, but I just kept seeing more and more bees and figured hey there must be some visitors here. Well, a quick survey revealed some robbing going on and I could see that the robbers were flying in from east of where this hive I removed was. Tomorrow if I get some time I will survey the area, perhaps I'll be able to find that other hive, probably a slim chance though but it doesn't hurt to try. Anyway, its always a good day when you get the queen! Hope ya'll enjoy the pics. Btw, my friend Bailey and his father n law had some excitement with a 911 swarm call! But that's his story to tell. Have a good one.

http://picasaweb.google.com/pyxicephalus/March52008Harahan





....JP

You southern beeks always make me jealous... A swarm on March 5th...  Dang.  It must be nice!  I'm goin' nuts wonderin' if my ladies are gonna pay off in June.  Or even be viable then.  That will make it 14 months after the initial install.   Good luck with that little windfall!

[Cindi]

JP, I got some comments, if I can remember them all.  For one, that was a beautiful job and the pictures you took are astounding!!!  Keep them coming, it is so enlightening to see these colonies that do not live in the boxes that human provide for them eventually. 

Did the bees actually only use that small hole I see in the bottom of the floor thing to get in, that tiny little hole?  Amazing.

The size of your bee vacuum is alarmingly big, how in the blazes do you carry that thing around anyways.  YOu are one busy dude with all the stuff.

The robbing that was going on may have been a good thing?  It keep the other bee colony away from the one you were getting?  Is this correct thought?

Anyways, good job, great you got that beautiful queen, she is beautiful. When I see pictures of the queen bee, it brings that smile to my face too, like Annette said, something about the beauty of that girl.  Have the most beautiful and wonderful day, love our life we be livin'.  Cindi

[Jerrymac]

I put a few combs down on a piece of cardboard and that's when all hell broke loose, sort of.

I had this happen once. There were so many bees flying I had no problem following them a quarter of a mile to their hive down in an irrigation well. As it would cost $600 or more to pull the well I let them stay there.

[JP]

JP, I got some comments, if I can remember them all.  For one, that was a beautiful job and the pictures you took are astounding!!!  Keep them coming, it is so enlightening to see these colonies that do not live in the boxes that human provide for them eventually. 

Did the bees actually only use that small hole I see in the bottom of the floor thing to get in, that tiny little hole?  Amazing.

The size of your bee vacuum is alarmingly big, how in the blazes do you carry that thing around anyways.  YOu are one busy dude with all the stuff.

The robbing that was going on may have been a good thing?  It keep the other bee colony away from the one you were getting?  Is this correct thought?

Anyways, good job, great you got that beautiful queen, she is beautiful. When I see pictures of the queen bee, it brings that smile to my face too, like Annette said, something about the beauty of that girl.  Have the most beautiful and wonderful day, love our life we be livin'.  Cindi

Cindi, glad you are liking the pics. I have to make this quick cause I am late for another one, beemaster addiction, hahahaah.

> The beevac is really not that big, smaller than a deep, narrower, maybe taller.

> bees in nature usually enter their homes through a very small entrance. The entrances to our hive bodies are enormous in their little eyes.

> Robbing is never really a good thing for any colonies involved, accept for the colony doing the robbing. Its stealing honey plain and simple. There ought to be a law about this, but I don't think you could enforce it, heehee. In a sense it could keep the robbing colony away buy it doesn't always work that way. This one wasn't so bad. There wasn't that much honey to be robbed with this one anyway, but the bees were tustling over it. I did one 3 yrs ago where 2 other colonies showed up to rob, you could see this by all the coming and goings from different directions. That was chaos let me tell you. It was late summer, hot, and thousands upon thousands of bees everywhere, I was in bee heaven and bee hell all at the same time. I will keep the pics and stories coming.


....JP

[Cindi]

JP, go!!  go!!! go!!!  Get some more pics for us, we are starving for visuals, hee, hee, beautiful and safe day, love our life we live.  Cindi

Gonna get kids ready for school now, so I am gone too (in more ways than one, gone, maybe in the head, hee hee)

[SystemShark]

I get so excited everytime I see all these removal pix especially. I can't wait to put my hat in the ring when it comes to swarm removal calls. Great pix! Its amazing that to us...all of that is beautiful but that there is so much fear out there from others that don't realize how great it really is.

[JP]

I get so excited everytime I see all these removal pix especially. I can't wait to put my hat in the ring when it comes to swarm removal calls. Great pix! Its amazing that to us...all of that is beautiful but that there is so much fear out there from others that don't realize how great it really is.

It's all about edumacation. Sharks are scary, have pointy teeth, throw in the Jaws scare and people wanted to kill every shark they saw, which was hurting their numbers. They do serve a purpose like most animals. Bees have stingers, ooh wee, they must be bad!!! Well, I beg to differ!!!


....JP

[DayValleyDahlias]

JP I am still blown away by the amount of swarms and cut outs you have!!  Wow!  Love the stories and pictures!

[Keith13]

jp the pictures were amazing

[JP]

jp the pictures were amazing

Keith, I'm glad you liked them!


....JP