We got a surprise all today. Someone found a bee swarm! Seems late in the season for a swarm but we still need to fill one hive so it is worth checking out!
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This turned out to be a picture perfect swarm capture! It was a smaller swarm hanging onto a plum tree just a few feet from the ground. Clipping a few branches enabled me to drop them into the bucket easily. As usual I set the bucket down with the lid cracked open and let them alone for 10 or 20 minutes and sure enough, 100% of the bees climbed inside! It was amazing to watch them all calm down and one by one crawl inside the bucket. This is the first time we caught every single bee!
the only down side was that Hunter got stung! He was standing maybe 10 feet way but for some reason at the first light touch of the clipper the swarm rustled to life and a couple of bees shot out. One of those shot straight to Hunter and stung him under his chin! there was no delay, no thinking about it, the little fellow flew straight to him and stung within a half second of me touching the branch. That was a first! too. the rest of the bees seemed docile enough, it was just he single bee.
We met a really nice couple who ended up in the end letting the kids pick plums from the tree to take home. They happily picked a bag full of fresh juicy plums after the bees were gone.
Now the bees are adjusting to their new home, our 6th hive for the season. Hopefully they will make a happy long lived home of Little Sprouts Farm.
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| The swarm resting between the plum branches |
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| Snipping some branches off around it |
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| time to snip the main branch off |
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| and in the bucket |
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| we finished the evening by picking plums! |
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