Honey Bees arrive at Little Sprouts!

Today we captured our first bee swarm! A very nice family in Jacksonville called this afternoon off our craigslist ad. They had a swarm if bees in their backyard on a trampoline.  Excited, we loaded everyone up and headed right over to see if they were catch able.

After arriving at the property, I suited up in the space age anti-bee sting suit. The swarm was hanging off a spring connection point underneath the trampoline. There were a few on the ground below, and a few had collected into  mini swarm on the ground. The collection went very smoothly. As you can see in the video (which the homeowner was kind enough to take), I placed a bucket under the trampoline and scraped a few stragglers together, then a light tap on the top made the bulk of the bees drop right into the bucket.  At this point I put the bucket down and watched for a bit to see where the main interest was.

It appeared that most of the bees were definitely interested in what was inside the bucket, apparently the queen. Nevertheless there were some collecting back on the trampoline. This led to repeating the process a few times, with a few minutes waiting between. That's when I noticed the mini swarm on the ground. Those were easy enough "swept up" with a bee brush and a dust pan. (have to remember to add dustpan to the bee equipment).

When it appeared that most of the bees were in the bucket I picked up the lid slightly and slid the bee brush into a corner to hold a crack open. Several more bees flew into the bucket until there were only a few left flying around.  At this point we called it good, sealed the bucket up with duct tape and loaded them in the car.

Once we got home, the bees went easily into the hive. The hinged top of these top bar hives is sure a benefit ! So quick and easy to get the bees inside and everything buttoned up.

Right about sundown we went out to check and the bees were all happily buzzing away in a top corner of the hive. Hopefully in a few days the hive will be full of honeycomb!

Hunter certainly has no fear of bees! He walked right up and stood in the middle of them to get a picture of hte swarm. He is fascinated by the bees. We had to pull him back a few times to keep him from getting too close and irritating the bees. Someday soon he will make a great beekeeper!

You can see the little swarm hanging off the spring in the center.

Into the bucket!

Here is the video: