First pics are of a young colony between floor joists in an apartment complex.
Now for the Whole Foods swarm. Got a call Friday morning from Whole Foods about a swarm on a cypress tree in their parking lot. About three handfulls of bees were on the tree acting a lil pissy.
The employees and manager start answering my questions and come to find out an employee sprayed them with heavy sugar syrup the day before and dumped them in a bucket (death trap) that was moved to a lot, next to a willow tree approx 150 yards from the tree.
Mgr says employee (with good intentions) swears she got the queen (drone) in the bucket.
I retrieve bucket of much too sticky bees and set up a deep on my tailgate to which I precede to dump sticky bees with hidden surprises (gravel, mud & mulch).
Once surprises were discovered, I elected to just dump and sort bees from dirt/gravel/mulch from tailgate.
I decided the bees needed a good bath of water from a spray bottle to dilute the stickyness. After being washed down and drying commenced, the bees started fanning and entering the deep with the caged queen I caught off the tree.
All this crapola took an hour and 15 minutes. I set the box next to the tree and secured the area.
Came back two hours later in a downpour and sealed the entrance and took the bees.
I took these all the way to Bud's and now they are back home with me.
Pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/112138792165178452970/April232010#...JP