My Home Among The Hills

This is definitely not recommended at home but I couldn’t see just letting them go. I had to reach into the tree with a hoe in order to bend the branch down far enough for me to cut it so I could carry the bees down.

I was able to get the swarm down successfully and I didn’t even scratch my truck! I was terribly attached to that old Jeep pickup. I brought my first hive of bees home in it…cradled gently in the bed one evening…ah, the hum of the bees is like mother’s milk

This swarm had me howling…I got a call and the guy had been mowing with a riding mower. He was working around this tree in his yard when he came face-to-face with the swarm of bees. When I got to the house, I could see the mower track going around the yard. The path neared the tree then shot off in a random direction away from the tree. The swarm was about face-high-on-a-riding-mower in this tree and the owner had just experienced a close encounter!

The bees took to the cedars again. This one was on a hot day so I decided to wear shorts. Like the ladder in the pickup truck, this is not necessarily recommended for home users. Remember, I play a beekeeper on TV!

This swarm was all tangled up in a chain link fence. I tried hand-scooping them into a hive for awhile but gave up on that. Instead, I just pulled back on the fence and let ‘er rip. They fell perfectly into the box. They have turned into a great colony

One of these hives is preparing to swarm…can you guess which one? I just happened to be right in front of it when they erupted out of the hive and buzzed around in the air. It was absolutely crazy and really really cool. I suppose they buzzed around like that for 5 minutes and then they all returned to the hive. They wanted to swarm I guess but they never did. I guess the queen was happy where whe was. I am not sure what happened but they remained strong through the season