The bee keeper diaries

[Iowanian]

Today has been a banger.

I got a call last night that there was a bee swarm on the local HS baseball field. I went and got it this morning, super simple.

I went to work for a couple of hours, phone rang with a swarm in town...left to go get my stuff and while I was loading it, 2 more calls came in.

The second was about 15' above the ground on an oak limb that was probably a foot around, so it couldn't be shaken. I had purchased a telescoping pole, and cut the top off of a 5 gallon water cooler jug, duct taped it on there and used it to scoop the bees off the swarm and dump them into a box. After about 3 tries I had about 75% of the bees, but they weren't happy with my method. within half an hour-45 minutes, the rest of the bees had joined them in the box.

The third was a simple shake into a box.

The last one is about 30' up a cedar tree at a local cemetery. I considered some sketchy ideas including climbing the tree and cutting the limb, extending a ladder and trying to use the bee pole mentioned above, but it was so bushy around them I didn't think it would work. I decided to bait a deep super with some old comb(and 7 new) and some lemon grass oil and put it on a taller headstone a few yards away. When I left, there were already quite a few bees exploring it, so I'm hoping to go back later and find them all in a box, so I can duct tape the entrance and get them out of there before memorial day traffic.

banger of a day, and only 1 sting....on the buttock.

Oh, and the mean bees I collected a couple of weeks ago....definitely still the devil and soon those queens are gonna DIE between my thumb and finger. I hate those bees.