4th of July swarm rescue

LA newbee Jan writes:

Yesterday, about 2:00, my next-door-neighbor Marty called, saying, "You've got a problem." We'd had a swarm of bees settle on our house. I love bees, but Marty was hiding in his house and a bunch of other neighbors were freaking out; there were going to be tons of people coming for the 4th on 4th Street. I found Backwards Beekeepers online. The person I spoke to doubted anyone was available on the holiday, but said he'd contact a volunteer who lives in Manhattan. Susan came over and voila! We learned about their group and all kinds of bee and hive stuff. So cool.

The original group landed on the house, by the chimney.

The cluster got bigger, spreading to the pittosporum, so we braced the branch out with a 2x4 to split it and encourage them to leave. They didn't.

Marty was scared they were Africanized 'killer' bees, but they were harmless Western honey bees who, having outgrown their old hive, were looking for a home. Susan told us they assign and send out scouts. The remaining bees follow the scouts, clustering around the queen to protect her while they're outside and she's vulnerable. Because she's not built to fly, she tires easily and has to rest. That was what was happening here....they'd most likely stay overnight and move on in the morning to find a permanent spot where it was dark and the entry area was small and easy to defend (hopefully not our attic or between our walls). The queen is in the middle of the 'branch' group. The 'house' bees on the right eventually moved over to the branch.

Susan arrived with her portable hive....

....complete with a ready-for-occupancy bee condo, taken from one of her own hives. Her box holds 5 of these. The boxes we see on orchards each hold 10 each. You can see the bee 'bread' (their food) in most of the darker cells, and honey in the upper left, lighter area.

The 'tree' cluster turned out to be a good thing, enabling her to trim little branches away, then cut the top off and place it, along with the swarm, into her box.

We both stood close by for at least 45 minutes without one sting. Apparently, regardless of where they are, all the bees return at night to rest, and that's the best time to move them. Susan returned at 9:00 pm and took the box to her house to start a new hive.

Susan said the city of Manhattan Beach refers calls to her. She told me my call was good timing; she'd just gotten up from a nap after going out at 3:30 am to collect a swarm on 12th St! Here's Susan with the portable box on the roof behind her. You can see some of the scouts returning.

4-H Club makes a swarm rescue in Torrance

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta passes this story along from the Palos Verdes Peninsula 4-H club:

Sunday morning our Surfing Group was surfing at Torrance Beach and noticed a beehive on the backside of the Torrance Beach Lifeguard Tower. Bill Johnston, the Surfing Project Leader, notified the Palos Verdes Peninsula 4-H Club Bee Project and the project members made arrangements to meet at Torrance Beach at dusk to capture the swarm.

The Bee Project Members have saved swarms before but never one on the ground, which is very unusual. As the Bee Project members further investigated, they noticed that the swarm had already begun to make a hive structure. They found the queen and put her and most of the other bees into a shoe box which we eventually put into a cooler to transport to John's Canyon in Rolling Hills.

Some of us returned today to Torrance Beach to make sure our operation was successful! And it appears that it was indeed. Our Bee Project members are very happy that they have been able to help the Community in these instances, and it has also given them a chance to educate the public in the value of bees in the environment. We need to be aware of preserving the bee population.

We were happy to help the Los Angeles County Lifeguards and the bees as well.

Your Bee Rescue Hotline at work: Granada Hills

LA Backwards Beekeeper Max answered a call to the Bee Rescue Hotline:

This Granada Hills swarm capture was a piece of cake. The swarm, about the size of 1 1/2 footballs, was in a hedge next to the front lawn. When I arrived, a gardener (totally oblivious to the swarm just to his left and above his head) was actually mowing the lawn. He nearly had a heart attack when I pointed out the swarm! After he finished, I sprayed the swarm with sugar water, cut the dominant branch with a pair of pruners that I brought along, and gently shook them in a nuc box.

I was in and out in about 30 minutes. I even took along a neighbor who now has total bee fever :)

—Max

Your bee rescue hotline at work: Westwood

Check out the handmade warning sign.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Ruth writes about a true community effort:

I responded to a swarm call in Westwood—I was right in the neighborhood. There was a little grapefruit-sized swarm hanging from a crosswalk sign in a super-busy intersection! I used my trusty 1-quart milk carton to get them into a little cardboard box, taped onto the top of my ladder.

Matrone and Erich.

The swarm call was made by Susan Olsen, who learned about the crosswalk-bees from Westwood Ambassadors Matrone Hutchings and Erich Knapper, who work for the Westwood Village Improvement Association.

They in turn, were notified by a manager at the Trader Joes in front of the crosswalk, who heard about the bees from a pedestrian named Frank.

Frank.

Frank makes documentary films and is very aware of environmental issues. His next film will be about the importance of insect-eating bats.

While I was hanging around waiting for the bees all to go in to the box, a young guy stopped in his tracks in front of the swarm box. "Oh my God that is a swarm box! Amazing!" he yelled.

I said to him "That is MY amazing swarm box! Are you a beekeeper?"

And he said "I am a Backwards Beekeeper!"

And that's how I met Chance, who's been learning beekeeping from Walker and Kirk.

Chance.

So I said, "Chance, where do you keep your bees?"

And he told me, "I don't have any yet!"

So I gave him these Crosswalk Sign Bees.

And then the corner went back to normal.

—Ruth

James and Kirk get a surprise swarm

Los Angeles Backwards Beekeeper James writes:

Over the past few weeks I had started to notice the comings and goings of the hive was becoming greatly reduced. I spoke with Kirk a few times and he encouraged me to see what was going on for myself.

Upon doing this on sunday morning, I noticed that the bees had become restricted to a third of the super at the bottom of the hive. Lots of empty black brood filled the other 4 brood boxes. I rang and spoke to Kirk about this and seeing as he was close by, he very kindly offered to stop by.

We set about donning our gear and firing up the smoker, to take a further look. My smoker fuel was a bit on the lame side, so Kirk went to his truck to fetch some more fuel. It was then I walked down to the hive and heard what I thought were some angry bees buzzing around the box. I then looked up and saw a massive swarm about to descend on the hive. Kirk arrived back from the truck and we stood in amazement by what was happening!

Kirk said they were either leaving the hive or arriving...it took him but only a few minutes to recognise it was a whole new swarm of bees. We went down to the hive and Kirk slid open the two top brood boxes a little and the bees happily moved inside.

Needless to say Kirk and I spent a great couple of hours in and amongst the bees, watching them doing the amazing work of establishing a new home!

—james

Here's the video!

Your bee rescue hotline at work: Silver Lake

Thomas in Silver Lake called the Bee Rescue Hotline about a nice little swarm hanging from a canvas canopy in front of his house.

First I gave them a few sprays of sugar water. Then I put a ladder underneath, set a nuc box on top of the ladder, and brushed the swarm gently to drop them onto the box.

Thomas' son found this all very interesting.

It took only a few minutes for the swarm to move into the box and start fanning to show the hive where the new home was.

Kirk's first swarm of the year

The swarms start early in LA. Spring has sprung!

Kirk writes on his Facebook page:

Bob's your uncle.

The easiest kind of swarm capture.

This hive was empty a week ago.

If you've got all your gear but no bees, be sure to leave an empty hive box (with top & bottom boards and frames) wherever you'd like your hive to be. If you're lucky, a passing swarm may move in.

Here in Southern California (and in any mild climate), bees may find you at any time; I went out to our yard today and was happy to find a new hive all set up and running. Free bees with no work whatsoever!

If your hive box and frames are new, it helps to have some starter strips with wax in the frames; here's a video on how to do this. A bit of lemongrass oil on a cotton ball is a good lure as well.

Your bee rescue hotline at work: North Hollywood

Bob called the Bee Rescue Hotline today about a swarm that had landed at a North Hollywood construction site where he and a crew are installing solar panels. Bob needed the bees gone, but he didn't want them to get killed.

These bees were about 20 feet off the ground, but fortunately there were plenty of scissor lifts available. Up I went, and there I met the calmest bees I think I've ever seen. I sprayed them with some sugar water and brushed them into a box with no trouble at all.

Liana Aghajanian of the LA Weekly came along for the ride; she needed photos for an upcoming "Best of LA" feature. She was also fearless about holding the nuc box while I scooped straggler bees into it from overhead. Thanks Liana!

After the trip home to Silver Lake, the bees were eager to get out and start exploring.

Motorcycle swarm capture!

LA Backwards Beekeeper Danny writes on his blog:

I got a call from Mike. He works for the City of Oxnard and had a "bee problem."

They had landed on his bike!

I went out and tried to brush most bees into the box.

There were so many places where they were hiding, including under the speedometer, that I decided to smoke them out of there. Most flew up and landed again on the bike.

I suited Mike up in an extra suit, and when I had smoked most of them away, he moved the bike to another place. The bees came down and landed in the wooden bee box. Exactly what we wanted. I gave them a couple of hours to regroup and picked them up, just in time for a long weekend.

They can now live in one of my bee yards.

More photos: Bee Swarm on a Motorcycle (Bees And Beyond blog)

Reminds me of Amy's bicycle swarm from almost three years ago!

Oregon beekeeper gets a swarm

Bill in Oregon, who first got in touch with us last month, has now expanded his skills.

Bill writes:

It's me again. I just caught my first swarm! Hurray!

The bees seem to be swarming a lot at the moment here in Oregon. We're finally getting some warm and dry weather. I actually got 2 calls from my Craigslist post in the one day, just 10 minutes apart. I also heard of a 3rd swarm as well but it had moved on.

Since I was really only looking for 1 swarm and the first one was easier to get to, I let someone else take the 2nd.

Lesson learned in this trip: put gloves on. Here's some video, stings and all.

—Bill

You can see all of Bill's YouTube videos here.

Viewer mail: Swarm rescue with heavy equipment

A reader in Michigan writes:

I know that we are a long way from LA, but I have a story to tell that would not have happened without your blog. In the fall of 2010, we began investigating beekeeping. Your blog was one of the first I followed. I borrowed books from the library, my husband watched all the videos he could find.

In the winter of 2011, we ordered two packages of bees and beekeeping supplies. We felt that our chances of happening upon a wild swarm in west central Michigan were slim and we certainly weren't ready to open ourselves to removal of bees—we hadn't even kept bees.

Fast forward to this winter. We decided to order two more packages, one for my husband's mother and one for us in case we ended up with an empty hive. We checked on them went it warmed up and discovered we had two full hives survive a rather mild winter this year. We ordered more supplies so we would be ready, added more hive body pieces to our existing hives and were happily awaiting the arrival of our new bees.

Roberta grabs a swarm, revives a hive

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

Shannon and her family have been very gracious by allowing me to keep my two hives at their place. The bees have been there for about a year now, and the family feels that their fruit crops have had a big boost from the added pollinators.

I got a few frantic calls about a swarm that had landed on the front yard fence, because Shannon didn’t want anyone to run into it by accident. There had already been some bees and honeycomb that had fallen from a palm tree hive elsewhere in the neighborhood, and that created quite a stir on the street. Shannon thought I should go after that one too but the homeowner already contacted their beekeeper friend to come and rescue it.

The kids are pretty used to the bees being around, and everyone’s been stung at some point since they spend a lot of time outside with bare feet. Shannon swears by her plantain-and-rum poultice that she applies after a sting—she says the pain and swelling just disappears. One of the younger girls, however, once was stung between the eyes and they swelled shut. It’s a great story that they like to tell, and they have pictures of her smiling and sticking out her tongue.

I was going to whisk this swarm off, but we took a look in one of my hives and it was empty, so I put the bees in a box (as the kids watched from a car) and then dumped the bees into the empty hive. All done.

The next time I come, the kids are going to get suited up and will help with the hive inspection. They really wanted to help this time, but it was getting really late so we made it a quick one.

—Roberta

Swarm season in full swing

Hive-in-a-box in Long Beach.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

Our swarm season has started, and the calls are pouring in to the Bee Rescue Hotline.

I picked up two of them. The first was in Long Beach, where Christine, tracked us down for her mom. They'd had a swarm before and called the city, then were horrified to see the city crew spray chemicals to exterminate the bees. It's always easy to pick the house on the street that has the bees because it’s usually the woman with flowers all over the front yard while the neighbors have lawn. Christine’s mom had birdfeeders everywhere and lights in the trees making it look like magical garden. She was very protective of the bees though a bit scared around them (and camera shy).

The bees had found an antique box, probably about 75 years old, that was perfect for them. It was dark and big inside. I turned over the bottomless box and exposed a cute small little hive. I wrapped the box up in a sheet and whisked it off. I’ll let them build a bit in there till I figure out what to do with them.

Deborah points out the bees.

Then I went to Culver City and picked up a medium-size swarm from Deborah’s tree. Of course, she’s also a big bee supporter and got up close and personal with the bees to show me where they were. She was certain that her 6-foot ladder could reach them and tried to show me as she stretched out her arm to say, “you can almost touch them." Being about a foot shorter than her, I said No.

Luckily her neighbor had an extension ladder that was perfect and with a few shakes of the branch and a couple of maneuvers, the bees were in the box but mad about the move. The swarm looked about the size of a basketball but felt at least 5 lbs.

I’m hoping they like the box so I can find someone to give them to. There are a few other calls I didn’t have time for so I hope someone out there can help our hotline callers out.

Both families I met were so happy that “their” bees would be given a home and that no chemicals were involved. It’s so rewarding to help out someone and the both of them were going to tell their friends and neighbors so we’ll need more people who can respond to the calls.

—roberta

You can learn more about becoming a bee rescue volunteer here.

Yvonne and the fuse box swarm

LA Backwards Beekeeper Yvonne writes:

Liz lives in Culver City and was contacted by her neighbor who saw a swarm land and move into Liz’s fuse box. The neighbor was in complete awe and both women insisted the bees be relocated and not killed! I went over to collect the swarm.

Liz’s 19-month old daughter, Riley, was fascinated by the entire experience and watched from behind a glass door for the beginning. By the end though, realizing that the bees were not aggressive at all, everyone came outside to watch more closely. (Incidentally, Liz is now considering getting a bee hive of her own).

I got the bees safely removed and placed them in a box for transport to Venice, where they seem to enjoy their new digs!

Grabbing a swarm in Glassell Park

We got a call to the Bee Rescue Hotline about a swarm in a bougainvillea bush. Amy and I headed up there and met Margot, her husband Ben, and their son Casey. They were psyched to learn about why bees swarm and how a hive works.


We gave the swarm a couple of quick sprays with sugar water, then nudged them into a nuc box. They were as calm as could be.


This swarm is now in our yard and so far, seems inclined to stick around. Foragers are bringing in food, which always seems like a good sign.

Saving a tiny swarm

LA Backwards Beekeeper Yvonne writes:

Stacy from Windsor Hills called the Bee Rescue Hotline to remove a swarm from a tree in time for a 3-year old's birthday party. The swarm, located in a crabapple tree, was one of the smallest ones I've seen!

Stacy's son Torin gave me a hand in sweeping them into a shoebox. We put the shoebox in the tree to allow the stragglers to join their queen.

—Yvonne

Catching a swarm in Torrance

LA Backwards Beekeeper Yvonne writes:

Kim in Torrance called the Bee Rescue Hotline about a swarm in her neighbor's tree. It was important to Kim that the bees be saved.

We showed up and found a very small swarm. Kim's son Bennett and his neighbor posed for a picture next to the bees. This easy job was a welcome relief in our busy day! We captured the swarm easily and they were ready to move to their new home.

—Yvonne