Ray and Sally in Silver Lake called the Bee Rescue Hotline about a hive of bees in one of their backyard trees. The bees had only swarmed there 4 or 5 days ago, but they had already drawn three small combs, started collecting honey, and had a decent amount of new brood going. Impressive!
I'm not good at identifying trees, but this one has the kind of fast-growing branches that feel like they can snap off without too much effort. And despite not being superstitious, I wasn't all that excited about being up on a ladder on Friday the 13th. But that's bee fever for you.
I borrowed a small kitchen knife from Ray and Sally to remove the very new combs from the branch.
Meanwhile, Sally modeled her new Backwards Beekeepers t-shirt for Ray.
Once I got the box down to the ground, the bees had already found the entrance and were exploring.
I gave the box a quick duct tape job and got them on the move so they wouldn't overheat. Yes, in January.
Here are the bees in their new home, sitting atop the hive I'll join them with if they decide to stick around.
1/13/12
Your Bee Rescue Hotline at work: Silver Lake
Russell 1/13/12
Labels: bee rescue hotline, cut-outs
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (RSS)
7 Responses:
Bravo! Great catch on Friday the 13th no less! Did you reuse the tree hive comb or was it to soft? You think this was an absconding swarm or is this a rare reproductive for this time of year?
I think that's the first time we've had a caller request both a Beekeeper and a t-shirt. What a deal!
David--I did manage to get a couple of the combs into frames with rubber bands. I messed up the brood pretty badly in the process of removing it from the tree, so I'm hoping the bees can get the queen laying again quickly.
Kirk,
This is Sally. The bees that were left from Jan 13, 2012 rescue have just swarmed and landed on a bamboo branch about 15 feet away from the tree branch where you rescued the queen and workers. Could they have created another queen in this 12 day interim? It was my understanding that the remainder bees that weren't taken 12 days ago would eventually absorb into another hive, die or just go away. What do you think happened?
Sally
Sally--send a photo of the bees to beehumans [at} gmail dot com and we'll see what's happening.
Russell
Sally should call kirkobeeo
Kirk,
Sally again. The bees just swarmed again 30 minutes after they landed in the bamboo! They flew across the street and up into a big pine tree. I've lost sight of them now. I hope they will fare well.
Thanks,
Sally
Post a Comment