We had a pretty cool experience on May 13. I put my name on the swarm removal list and the next day I received my first call. It came that morning and I had meetings at work until 3:00 p.m. I was worried I would be too late and sure enough I was. I was pretty disappointed. We have a week hive from the nuc we purchased and I figured a good healthy swarm could help strengthen it. I received another call about 7:00 p.m. and we were off. Natalie and the girls came with me and we went and put the swarm in a box. The swarm was a lot bigger than I thought and it packed the nuc box to the brim. I couldn't get them all in, so I left the box over night and then picked them up in the morning.
The next morning I went early before they started to fly and they were all tucked nicely in the box. I put them in my SUV (a pickup would have been a little more ideal) and brought them home. We got them home without incident. I weighed the bees and I figured the swarm was about nine pounds of bees. This was three times the size of the package we had purchased a few weeks before. I put them in their place and removed the screen from the entrance, the bees came flooding out. They pretty much covered more than 75% of the exterior of the box. I realized I needed to get them in a bigger box and it needed to be right away. It was a lot of fun capturing that swarm.
I will post the video shortly. You can see just how graceful I am on my first swarm capture.
If you ever see a swarm of honey bees, please call me or a local beekeeper. Honey bees are so valuable to our food supply. Please do not call an exterminator.
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