I walked out of class this morning and noticed a swarm. I asked the groundskeepers if they wanted me to remove it and they did. Unfortunately, I live 50 minutes from school and worried that the swarm would either move on or be hurt by the cold, drizzly weather if I took the two hour round trip to retrieve my gear.
So, the grounds people loaned me a ladder and a pair of shears and I scrounged a cardboard box and went to work. The swarm was about 10 feet up a cascara sapling on top of a 10 foot tall rotting stump, which of course was on the edge of a cliff (no kidding!).
An audience trickled in as I balanced on top of this stump and tried to hook the branch with the bees. This, of course, was not easy. I had no room to maneuver on top of this stump and the only way I could get the branch to bend put the bees right in front of my face. So, you can imagine me holding a branch under high tension, several thousand bees in front of my face, working a pair of shears that normally requires two hands with one arm.
It turns out the shears were dull. The branch would not cut cleanly. So, I had to twist the poorly cut branch until it came clear. Unfortunately, in the process of twisting, the bottom third of the clump fell off. And they weren't happy.
So, I got stung six times while I got the remaining two thirds into the cardboard box and taped it shut. When you are ten feet up a stump on the edge of a cliff, you really have no choice but to stand there and take the stings, and when you have an audience, no choice but to remain good natured about it. ;)
The question was; did I get the queen? I hoped so, but I couldn't tell. As I began to pack up the box, I noticed the swarm was re-forming from the missing third. That made me think maybe I missed the queen. Unfortunately, they had chosen a higher branch. And farther out over the edge of the cliff. And they were still angry.
So, I made a small opening in the box, placed it nearby in the hopes that the higher bunch would find it and enter it, and then I took the fifty minute drive home to get my gear. I returned with a better ladder, a pole saw, a hive, and most importantly, a veil.
When I got back, the remaining third was still clustered up, so I used the pole saw to saw most of the way through the branch in the hope that it would bend down where I could reach it. Unbelievably, this worked and I was able to snip the branch and plop the bees into the hive. I then dumped in the bees that were already in the cardboard box and closed it up.
By the time I was finished, an even smaller group of stragglers had clustered together, even higher on the tree, and there was no way I was going to be able to get them. So, hopefully, I have the queen.
My free bees only cost me $15 worth of gas and four hours of my time. I'd say I earned them. ;)