My new girls...

[Lesli]

My brother called late the other night. He told me he had a "stove" for me. I am intrigued, but he did not elaborate at first. I said, "Oh, tell me about it." He said it was old and really rusty, had to admit I was thinking old wood cook stove, but he then added "and full of bees and honeycomb."

He has been looking for a hive of bees for us for a long time. He is supplying the bee boxes and bees we get to keep 'em on our farm and split the harvest. He advertised on craigslist looking for bees. He got tons of calls from folks with bee hives in the walls of their homes etc. Then this guy called and said I have a metal crate with bees in it in my creek. I have watched them for 3-5 years, they seem strong and healthy. Fairly docile. My brother and father went back to get them at night, but they put a tarp over it and duck taped it and tumbled it over and over with chains pulling it up the embankment to his truck. They loaded it and left it there all night and he brought them to my farm early the next morning. I have a photo journal of this while it was happening.

I forgot the camera for the "getting it out of the truck" part. But we had the empty bee box and dh had fenced it to keep Sammy off of it because he had been bull dozing everything he came across, but now he is gone, just left it.


While the bees did seem rather docile, we still had to be careful and give them time to settle after each step.






Here is the money shot ;D


Look at that honey comb!!!

We will let them stay in this box for a while then when my beekeeper cousin comes around we will get him to help us move them into a bee box hopefully.

Sadly my biggest honey hound is Chase and that is the picture of his neck with the bee at the top. He did get stung behind the ear. He said it was because the bee knew he was the biggest threat!! His ear still sticks out much farther than the other one but he has not complained much in a few days. We go them Sunday morning.

Brannon got another call from a guy with a plastic or fiberglass icechest of some sort that is 4 X4 X6 ft full of bees. He wants to get that too. So Rich is going to have to get busy really fast to make some more bee supers and brood boxes.

Lesli

[KnockingbirdKelly]

JACKPOT! Goodness, Lesli, you guys seriously struck gold there! And another box of bees coming soon? How terrific! I hope the transfer goes well and that they'll be happy to stay and work at their new digs. Let us know how it goes, I'd love to hear about honey processing!

[jdranch]

Good for you! We got bees last spring and set them out back. I am not the bee person. I am not sure my husband is a bee person either, but he is the one in charge of them. I better send him to make sure we still have them- it has been awhile.

[Jan V]

Congratulations Lesli! And it seems like great timing as well, as things are just beginning to bloom around here!
Jan V

[windypines]

Wow good luck The stove picture is really something.
I am getting bees next month.

Michele

[cloverismycow]

three of our hives died from starving, because of the warm fall, they thought they could eat all of there supply and they starved. We had Italians, but are getting Cornolians (sp?)
Rick

[Lesli]

Well, my cousin came and he and my brother put my hive in hive boxes. Turns out they were just fixing to swarm, so they had several queen cells, with some hatching while they were transferring bees, so they made two hives. A couple of days later right across from the local school where my husband and I both work there was a swarm of bees in a tree. I called my brother and he came and got them and put them in another hive box, then we turned around and in a tree on our farm there were two huge balls of bees. He captured one of these and the other fell down to the ground and started swarming again. He came back today to get another swarm in the same tree. So now if they all stay we will have 5 hives of bees! DH and I are ordering suits and head nets etc. We are very excited but we are a little nervous. I wont tell the stories of the bee attacks on little ole me, but lets just say these are wild bees and not nearly as docile as mail order bees. My cousin said that is a good thing...?

[Lesli]

And there is yet another (6th) swarm in the same tree on our place!! Sure do hope that they don't hive in the walls of our travel trailer! That is the reason we just did not let the 5th swarm go. Are they ever going to stop swarming? We are out of brood boxes. Richard had gathered quite a bit of wood to make several more. He made 3 brood boxes a few weeks ago. My brother said order 100 frames for these he is making and I will pay you... 100!!! I guess that is only enough for the five hives adding a couple of boxes to the tops of these, But it all sounds overwhelming. I think my brother is going to put a few in some other areas so we will have a variety of honey.

[wren]

Wow! Sounds like you will have plenty of honey. I would like to know more about bees and possibly even have some someday, but I'm a bit leery of them since I have such a strong reaction to stings.

[Lesli]

Well, my son and I both have been stung now. His was way worse than mine. He got his behind his ear and the poor little ear stood straight out and was bright red and swollen for a week, Mine was on the forehead and didn't hurt much when I got stung and no residual pain like in the past, but there is still a large bump on my forehead. It was not a good sting, she kept her stinger and so I don't think I got much venom. I am still rather leery of the stings too. I will feel better to get my suit and veil. Brannon my little brother finally got stung through his canvas gloves. He said it was not bad though.

[Shawn]

Can you send some swarm vibes our way? ;D We're hoping to catch one off a cedar tree we have and get them into our prepared and waiting hive.

[Lesli]

Well, ours are just now swarming so you may be getting swarms pretty soon. You all are pretty North of us so maybe in a few weeks?? I will send VIBES!! ;D My brother got the 6th hive and put them in my aunt's hive box since hers have been empty for a while now. She was wanting to get back into beekeeping.

[WoodSpryte Farm/Tiffany]

this is amazing! I have been begging DH to build me some hives for 2 years now. STILL on the honey do list.. Pun intended..
I have only seen one swarm of bees here in michigan and it was actually earlier this summer. we were out at the pool and heard some funny sound. HUMMING... suddenly it was like a cloud went over us. we looked up and saw millions of bees. So we slowly and calmly walked to the greenhouse and shut the door behind us. A few did bounce off the plastic of the greenhouse, but for the most part they left us alone. it took apx 5 mins for them to clear the air. I wanted to follow, but they were sorta going cross country. lol.. some day.. SOME DAY I will have my bees..

[funnyfarmsquared]

Make mead!!!! Easy to do and YUMMY...We use California V yeast and it is ready to drink in 4 weeks but will age well too! If you do a yeast kill it can be resweetened to taste or leave the yeast and bottle it with a bit more honey and it ends up dry and sparkling! Oh did I mention our family are homebrewers!!!! I want bees too!