Swarms #7 & #8....Another CRAZY Day!

[Moots]

Got to work at 07:30, about 08:30 a call from one of the local chemical plants found it's way to me, they had a swarm that needed to be handled quickly.  Ran home, grabbed my stuff and headed to them.  Vacuumed it up and headed home.  Wanted to do a quick dump in a Nuc and get back to work.  The bees had other plans, they had no interest in the box and kept REPEATEDLY lighting on my trash can.  After repeated attempts to shake and bang them off the can with no luck...it became obvious to me that the queen was somewhere on the can and I'd have to find her.   Understand, I've never spotted a queen unassisted, so the pressure was on!  :)

I have to give a shoutout to Schawee, for all the pointers and advice, not to mention confidence, he had given me on how to find the queen, it worked like a charm!  :)  Got her spotted and caged, and was back to work by 11:00.

Went to lunch with a couple of co-workers and swung by my bee yard to show one of the guys my bees.  Got there about 12:30, just in time to see one of my hives swarm and land.  Had to head back to work hoping they would be there when I got off.

Left work about 16:15 to pick up my nephew from school....we had to rush home and try to deal with my swarm before heading to our monthly bee club meeting at 18:00.  Before  we could get home, I got another swarm call from a local business that had called me about 2 previous swarms.  

It was at this point that I realized something had to give, I couldn't handle it from a time, or equipment point of view....called a fellow beekeeper to handle the other swarm.

Got home and hived my swarm....best part being that my nephew actually spotted the queen, he missed her on the first attempt but we quickly found and caged her.  All in time to make our bee meeting!  

It was a good day!  :)

With 8 swarms under my belt and spotting and catching 2 queens today....I think i'm ready for my next challenge as a Beek!  Looking forward to doing my first cutout at Bud5 this weekend!  :-D

[Steel Tiger]

Seems like a busy and productive day that ended with cool story for your bee club meeting.

[hardwood]

You're kickin' butt now!

Scott

[RHBee]

Moots,
Congrats. Help a guy out here. What wisdom or method was given to you for finding the queen? I have caught 5 swarms this year and the only way I knew I had the queen was by watching how the bees act. Please help me out.

[PLAN-B]

Alright- lets start with the fact that I might be a little jealous... ;) with that being said; way to go brother !!!!!!!!!!! You are surely on a roll... I'm with Ray beeless--- help us out on those pointers for eyeballing the queen. Lol couldn't be happier for ya man... Keep it up... Sounds like it very well may be time to build some more hive stands and equipment... :-D

[JP]

Okay Moots, where's the proof, I mean pictures?  :-D

Been shakin' a few here and there myself, lost count but Cindy takes all the info down, somewhere I'm guessing anywhere between 16-18


...JP

[Georgia Boy]

Way to go Moots!!! :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

Still patiently waiting for my first. Looking and watching as I drive during the day. Hopeful....

Congrads!!!!

David

[Moots]

Ray and B,
Ok, I'll try to pass along some of the queen spotting advice that Schawee gave me....

First, you don't look for just the queen...In other words, you're not looking for "a bee". But instead just watching and observing all the bees...if that makes sense!  You'll pick up on how she's moving through the crowd...It looks like she's moving with a purpose and a little attitude.   :-D

The second piece of advice that really works nice that I used on swarm #8 was to shake the swarm into a large cardboard box...something with a big bottom.  I used a box that was probably a foot and a half by three feet with maybe 8 inch tall sides.  With the queen in the box, the bees stay put and aren't interested in going anywhere.  You can take your time and just watch them as you try to find the queen.  They'll spread out nicely over the entire bottom and crawl up the sides making it easy to observe the entire swarm.  Every now and then, lift the tabs of the box straight up and give the box a little bump on the ground, knocking all the bees to the bottom of the box and in essence, resetting the viewing process.   Schawee also taught me that there's no hurry, you can just take your time and keep doing this till you spot her.  I think realizing that there's not a clock running in trying to spot her actually makes spotting her quickly more likely.....it takes the pressure off.  :)

My nephew who helps me with my bees and had never even seen a queen bee in person spotted her yesterday using this technique in probably under 2 minutes....needless to say, he was fired up!  :-D

JP,
I hear you, if there aren't pictures...it didn't happen.  LOL! :laugh:

Unfortunately, no pictures of Swarm #7, I actually forgot to take one before I started vacuuming.  Thought about it while I was vacuuming and started to try to snap a pic one handed but then the guy from the plant thought I was using my cell phone, which is obviously a plant "no-no".  It was loud, he wasn't close...I figured it wasn't worth trying to explain.  :)

#8, I held the box and Eason (my nephew) actually did the shake...no one left to film.  :(  However, I caught a brief video of them when they were swarming and had started but not completely finished landing.  Love the sound!

Swarm landing!

[Steel Tiger]

#8, I held the box and Eason (my nephew) actually did the shake...no one left to film.  :(  However, I caught a brief video of them when they were swarming and had started but not completely finished landing.  Love the sound!

Swarm landing!

 I was about to comment that it would sound better if there was sound..then I realized I had my pc on mute.