3/30/10

Maurice re-hives a swarm


Backwards Beekeeper Maurice says:
I caught a small swarm a couple of days ago in Culver City. I donated it to another bee club and as we were walking by three hours later the bees began tumbling out of the hole cut in the bottom of the catch box.

In about two minuets they were all airborne in a total mass of a couple of VW campers. They began moving very slowly at an altitude of about 20' towards a big tree limb.



A few settled on it but the queen said that "this isn't the place" and they all moved off into a field about 50' away and settled on the weed stem that I'm holding.



We gently dropped them onto a board and within 10 seconds all made a bee line for the nuc, none went airborne on entering ...and they all lived happily ever after...