Your Bee Rescue Hotline at work: Atwater Village

Greg (above) in Atwater Village called the Bee Rescue Hotline yesterday to say that he had a swarm in front of his house. This is right around the corner from me, and one of the two recent swarms that came into our yard took off, so I picked up the empty nuc box and headed over.


This swarm couldn't have been easier to reach. It was in a small shrub, about one foot above the ground and right next to the sidewalk.

I sprayed the cluster with some sugar water and eased the nuc box under it. The bees started marching down to check out the frames right away.


Since I didn't want to wait around for an hour or so, I followed Kirk's advice and gently brushed the whole cluster into the box with my hands. I put the box top on, gave the stragglers a few minutes to find their way in through the open hole at the end, and headed out with a new bunch of bees.


Here's a video clip showing a couple steps of the process.

Let's make bees legal in LA as well!

From NYTimes.com:

Bees in the City? New York May Let the Hives Come Out of Hiding

Your Bee Rescue Hotline at work: Long Beach

Backwards Beekeeper Rick P. writes:

Just sending you some photos of the bees (from the Burbank swarm) that we got from Kirk.

Kirk was gracious enough to let us pick up the nuc box from his place after dinner on Saturday night. The bees are getting acclimated to their new home in Long Beach, and hopefully within the few more days we can transfer them to their new house!

Rick & Bora
excited new Backwards Beekeepers

Your Bee Rescue Hotline at work: Burbank

Jeff in Burbank called the Bee Rescue Hotline today, and Kirk got himself a new swarm of bees. Everyone wins!


If you haven't joined our Yahoo Group to be informed of bee rescue opportunities, you're missing out.

Kirk makes a night-time swarm capture

Kirk says:

I just got back from Echo Park. I got this one with a flashlight. I took the pictures by holding the flashlight on the cluster.

One swarm hived, and two more arrive.

You may recall the Valley Village swarm that I caught a couple of weeks ago (via a call to the Bee Hotline). Yesterday it finally got sunny and warm enough to take them out of the nuc box and put them in a proper hive, so I set to work.


When I got the box open, the first thing I noticed was water, and lots of it. Apparently a lot of our recent rain got in there, and water doesn't have many places to go once it's inside a wax-lined box.


(Kirk later told me that this is why he cuts a hole in the top of a nuc box, then covers the hole with screen. He's a smart one.)

That water didn't seem to have slowed the bees down. They had nearly filled five frames with comb and brood. Very impressive.


I didn't want to tear the comb apart, so I just moved the whole bunch of frames as one into a hive box.


As I walked away from the hive, I happened to glance up at the nuc box that I had tied up in a Eucalyptus tree some time ago, hoping to attract a swarm. Kirk had stopped by a couple of days earlier and seen some scout bees checking it out; he predicted that a swarm would be there soon. He was right.



A lot of the bees seemed to be clustering outside the box, so I climbed up on the ladder, sprayed them with sugar water, and brushed them inside the box. About half the bees were beyond my reach, but I wasn't willing to climb around to get them—falling out of a tree while pursuing bees is not my idea of a good idea.

Then this morning I noticed yet another swarm—this one clinging to the back of the hive box where I'd put the Valley Village bees. Consulting via phone, Kirk speculated that some scout bees had found this hive box while it was empty and then led their swarm there, only to find it occupied once they arrived. That's one messed-up moving day.


At first I thought the Valley Village bees themselves might have swarmed, but they were still hard at work inside their new hive box. So back I went with another nuc box, sprayed this easy-to-reach swarm with sugar water, and brushed them into the box.


It looks like I may have gotten the queen in there, as the rest of the bees seem pretty eager to get inside.



I don't know how many hives our yard can accommodate, but it looks like we're going to find out.

Phil and Erik find bees in birdhouses

Backwards Beekeeper Phil sends this story:

I answered an ad on Craigslist for “Bees for Hiving” which was placed by a lovely lady named Linda who takes care of Bluebird boxes all around the Yorba Linda area. I guess swarming honeybees LOVE these boxes and you can see from the pics why. She gets about twenty swarms a spring and promises to call us from now on.


I called Erik from Homegrown Evolution and he graciously agreed to come along for the pick up. We got there at dusk on Friday, armed with about 20 feet of screen-wire and enough duct tape to cover the Golden Gate Bridge.

We ended up taping about a foot of wire over the two holes on the front of the box and were on our way. We took two boxes with swarms and one box that “may” have had some brood that Erik could use later for a trap out. This was like fast food bee swarm pick-up; the boxes even have a big handle!



We took one box to a friend of Erik’s and I took the other to my home, cut a hole in the screen and left them on the hive box to acclimate. It rained all day Saturday, so I put an umbrella over the box, and the bees were surprisingly active, especially in the sea of blooming wisteria above their heads.


Erik arrived Sunday morning and we went to work lacing up some frames in hopes of lots of comb.


We suited up and smoked the Bluebird box a few times and let them settle in.


Here’s what we saw when we took the door off the box.


At that point I was ready to stop everything and call Kirk, as we couldn’t see which way the comb was facing, but Erik persevered and brushed enough bees aside to get a look at the comb.

We managed to cut out enough comb for four frames and found some lovely brood.


We buttoned everything up and went and had lunch and when we went back, there was a large group on the ground and we had a little panic attack thinking maybe the queen was down. We suited up again and scooped up all the bees and put them back in the hive. At one point we thought we saw the Queen, but later realized it was a drone.

After that everybody settled in surprisingly quickly. I would say within thirty minutes, it looked like a normally functioning hive box. I was thrilled.


About seven that night, like a worried parent, I went out to check on the hive and I found about a hundred bees bearding on the ground below the hive. Very weird, as it was cold and the rest of the hive had long since tucked in. I called Kirk and he told me to go out and scoop them up and put them back in. They were cold, so it was pretty easy and things have been fine since then.


Now we just need to see if we got the queen! Thanks again to Erik, who really stepped up and took the reins and Kirk for taking my call at 7:00 at night with a calming tone and some sage advice!

Here's some bonus video from Phil's adventure:

Name that old-school beekeeper

Yes friends, courtesy of the Anderson family archives: Kirkobeeo, circa 1973.

Mean bees in a tree trap-out

Kirk and Pshairyn tackled a very old fig tree filled with grumpy bees.

Here's Kirk with the story:

Start 'em young.

Backwards Beekeeper Phil writes:

Hey Kirk,

Thanks again for a great meeting. Getting to be a part of a hive inspection was a real treat. My son Ryder was amazed and is now really excited about our new adventure. Can't wait for bees and we are ready to go as soon as we come up on the list!

Look forward to seeing you at the next meeting.

Phil