Funny thing happened yesterday

[Bron 2,780]

So we are out at Dale’s Queen rearing yard picking up some cells yesterday. Himself is putting top feeders on the poly hives, I’m chatting to our farmer as we’ve known her for decades. We take turns with the chats then at least half the work gets done. She was giving me a hard time about bee bothering ‘her bees’ & telling me that the kiwiFruit farmer had been out there (Gizzys a small place, they are both in garden club) the day before, she also thought ‘her’ bees were looking good. Community ownership!

 

So niceties outa the way we crack on! Then I heard the hum pick up pace. Looking up I saw the ominous swirl, the hum picks up some more. I mention to Himself that we might have to wait for that to settle, saying that we won’t stop it now. He casually walks to the front of the hive & looks down at the grass. Isn’t that her? Ops! Two fingers! So we carry on. Hum starts to slow down. By the time we’d put the feeders on & got the cells out the girls were pretty well back to normal.

Himself is pretty smug! Too busy for that nonsense today as we drive away.

[Jamo 534]

Ive got a story I bit like that. Happened last year. My veil at the time was getting a bit second hand and had a moderate size hole in it but not too much of a problem in spring when the bees are usually reasonably polite. One of our yards has a big Pukatea tree right beside it and while I quite like Pukatea's for their abundant pollen which nicely fills the gap between gorse and willow eairly and everything else later in spring this particular tree happens to be a favorite for swarms. It's quite tall and not particularly easy to recover swarms from.

 

Anyhow one day about this time last year we were trying to catch a somewhat high swarm, we had managed to through a load strap over the branch that the bees were on and I had climbed up as high as I could with a lid. 

 

The load strap was given a good tug and some bees were in the lid, some were on the ground, some were on me, some were in the air, and some were back up the tree.

 

I came down with what bees were still in the lid and was busy looking for the queen in the lid and also amongst the bees all over the ground. Most of our queens are marked and we can often find them quite easy almost a swarm but as this one was well spread around I wasn't likeing my chances and just as I was about to give up I spotted the queen with her big pink dot walking across the inside of my veil. She was the only one that had got inside.

[Bron 2,780]

That’s a good story! I’ve got another story and a picture somewhere of a seven box stack with steps made from boxes on the deck of the trusty Toyota trying to box a swarm up a Puketea tree. 

[Gerry 52]

Ok, I can play this game.

 

Happened last year during our spring swarm season.  I was working in the office here at the house, my wife was in the back of our property going to work on one of the garden plots.  I got a text from her, said 'there are bees in the wasp trap'.  My response, 'didn't think they would go in, but I guess it'll catch a few'.  She texts back 'no, there are bees in the wasp trap, you must come look'.

 

Guess a mating nuc swarmed, and the swarm set up shop in the wasp trap.

 

[Bron 2,780]

Then yesterday this happened!

[Bron 2,780]

Himself is standing on a stack of two supers on the back of the trusty Navara! Great way to spend an hour & a half at the end of a long day! Not!

 

We finally after a bit of shaking and sawing (pruning saw duct taped onto long stick) got most of them.

 

We were having lunch when it went up. I was gonna do the hive straight after lunch bb! Score for swarm season 3/4.
 

Considering the amount of tucker in the hives that’s not too bad.

 

Feeling a bit jaded, but we survived another crazy October. Everything boxed up. Gonna paint the house now.

[Bron 2,780]

Monday! This one went up at morning tea time on the track less travelled in tiger country. No deer were damaged as we were delayed by these.