[It has been a super busy few weeks so haven’t chance to write much, but since swarm season is imminent, here is a swarm catching piece I wrote a few years ago.]
A young beekeeper loaded a large rubbermaid tote full of beekeeping gear onto his truck. The tote contained a veil, beekeeping jacket, smoker, and other minor tools of the trade. He headed off to collect a swarm that another beekeeper didn’t want (or want to fool with). The old beekeeper had called the young beekeeper, who wasn’t all that young, but he was younger than the old beekeeper who wasn’t all that old, but he was old enough to know that he didn’t want to fool with this swarm.
The young beekeeper gladly accepted the opportunity to collect the swarm. The swarm looked like a basketball of bees hanging from the bottom of a swarm trap attached to a fence post. But upon closer inspection, the bees had already drawn four small combs that formed the inner framework for the ball. Instead of relocating inside the swarm trap, the bees had taken up residence underneath it. The was not a swarm but a burgeoning open-air brood nest.
“Should be easy enough,” the young beekeeper thought.
He put on his veil and stuffed dried grass clippings into his smoker. He rummaged for several minutes through his tote for his lighter until he remembered that he used the lighter earlier in the week to light the candles on his wife’s birthday cake and forgot to put the lighter back in the tote.
“It’s always something,” the young beekeeper thought. He thought about returning to his house to retrieve the lighter, but it was already half-dark and getting darker by the minute, and his house was ten minutes away and the bees seemed calm enough. Still, he had the good sense to switch out his veil for his beekeeping jacket and he put on his goat skin gloves.
He carefully used the tip of his hive tool to probe the mass of bees, and he started sawing through the top of one comb. A few bees took umbrage, pelting his protective gear, but he persisted. Then a piece of comb fell, and bees exploded in all directions. He did not get stung, per se, but the inside of his gloves now felt prickly.
“That didn’t work,” he thought.
He went back to his tailgate and rummaged through his box again. He didn’t know what he was searching for, but as if struck by divine inspiration, the young beekeeper grabbed a bottle of robber spray.
He spritzed air around the bees like a lady spritzing perfume. As if somebody had pulled a fire alarm, the bees started evacuating the comb in an orderly fashion, one long line pouring off the combs onto and up the side of the swarm trap. The bees made a beeline for the small circular entrance on the side of the swarm trap. Within minutes the comb was evacuated, and the beekeeper easily cut the comb from the bottom of the swarm trap and put it in a five gallon bucket on the back of his truck so he could melt it down in the future.
“Easy enough,” the young beekeeper thought proudly. He would just take the swarm trap with him, then bring it back in a few days after he moved the bees over to one of his hives. The old beekeeper wouldn’t mind. He then examined how the swarm trap was affixed to the post.
“Who uses square head screws?” he thought.
The young beekeeper went back to his truck and started rummaging through his toolbox, but he knew it was futile–he didn’t have any square head bits. Despite his best efforts, he would leave empty handed.
The next morning, the old beekeeper called; he couldn’t believe his good luck. Another swarm had already moved into his swarm trap.
The young beekeeper didn’t even try to explain.
He just said, “You keep that one.”
That’s some luck! My favorite swarm story is also a lucky one, but for me. We had a small swarm come off one of the hives and I was so excited because they were low on a cedar branch and so easy to move, into a hive I had prepared on the other side of the property from where these bees had been located. Easy-peasy, I was so confident!
Except after I put them in there, all excited for my success, the bees had another notion and about an hour later, I saw them start to leave, and I was so crushed. They gathered back up again in another limb, only this one was above the hive in a huge oak and there was no way to get to them. Boy was I feeling like a big loser!
And then, as we watched, and even got to film a little, they moved from their new perch, right over the garden, and into a small bait hive on the other side, nearly ground level b/c I hadn’t put it higher up yet! Big thrill! Got to see the whole move and it was really awesome!!
And, leaving me to ponder the mystery for years hence–what goes on in those bee-brains?!! And reminding me now to get my bait hives up quick, thanks for the nudge and memory!
Swarms have a mind of their own sometimes. I once caught the same swarm four times–it just kept swarming on the same limb of a little apple tree every afternoon. Finally, the forth time it stayed put, but I started to wondering if I was going crazy.