Post by Shawn on May 24, 2015 13:26:41 GMT -5
All right here's the picture first. 
Settled on the branch on a Thursday afternoon. We scratched our heads and said no. Waved at them and said goodbye. They didn't leave on Thurs. Still there all day Friday. Saturday comes and they're still there, taunting us. So we tried the trick recommended to us, get a rope over the limb and shake it. Wow, that's a big limb, not enough shaking going on here.
So DH puts the ladder up and carefully climbs up. He eventually brushed most of the cluster down with a broom, although by that time I sent the camera and my DD away since they were really mad that we had knocked a small part of them off with the shaking trick.
We had a box on a bed sheet down below. We got the queen in the first brush and they began to fan. We left them alone because they were PO'd. Apparently brushing them off for a 25 foot fall makes them mad. Who knew?
About 20 minutes later I went out and heard a loud buzzing, with lots of bees in the air. I was afraid they were leaving, but it was just the ones coming down off the branch. Apparently they all got word where the queen was and made haste down into the box. After an hour, I got a feeder on them and my makeshift lid. I have no bottom board or lid because we used everything up last year catching swarms. I only have this one deep and some supers. So their bottom is OSB with a screened bottom board, then the hive body, then another OSB with dog food sack stapled to it for some measure of water proofing. I think they're happy though because I gave them a feed of sugar syrup and this AM it was already gone. It was new foundation, so they probably were busy all night whilst we got 3 3/4" rain. You'd think they would thank me for saving them from that drenching.
Me and my lurching stomach at the bottom.
Settled on the branch on a Thursday afternoon. We scratched our heads and said no. Waved at them and said goodbye. They didn't leave on Thurs. Still there all day Friday. Saturday comes and they're still there, taunting us. So we tried the trick recommended to us, get a rope over the limb and shake it. Wow, that's a big limb, not enough shaking going on here.
So DH puts the ladder up and carefully climbs up. He eventually brushed most of the cluster down with a broom, although by that time I sent the camera and my DD away since they were really mad that we had knocked a small part of them off with the shaking trick.
We had a box on a bed sheet down below. We got the queen in the first brush and they began to fan. We left them alone because they were PO'd. Apparently brushing them off for a 25 foot fall makes them mad. Who knew?
About 20 minutes later I went out and heard a loud buzzing, with lots of bees in the air. I was afraid they were leaving, but it was just the ones coming down off the branch. Apparently they all got word where the queen was and made haste down into the box. After an hour, I got a feeder on them and my makeshift lid. I have no bottom board or lid because we used everything up last year catching swarms. I only have this one deep and some supers. So their bottom is OSB with a screened bottom board, then the hive body, then another OSB with dog food sack stapled to it for some measure of water proofing. I think they're happy though because I gave them a feed of sugar syrup and this AM it was already gone. It was new foundation, so they probably were busy all night whilst we got 3 3/4" rain. You'd think they would thank me for saving them from that drenching.
Me and my lurching stomach at the bottom.
