Catching the Grand Swarm!

June 20, 2013

It was the day before the Equinox so of course, something epic should take place!

Some of you may know that the restaurant next to the theatre has two beehives on its roof.  This restaurant specializes in local foods and does a honey festival in the fall.  I have always been interested in these hives and coincidentally, I had just met the beekeeper, Albert the weekend before.

The afternoon of June 20 I was out in the parking lot with a co-worker when we looked up and saw thousands of bees swirling above us!  A swarm was in motion and clearly from one of the hives on the roof behind us.  I followed them across the lot and almost immediately they all settled on a tiny tree at the edge of the lot.

Swarming bees

Cluster on the tree trunk

I immediately texted this photo to my husband, Bill and his answer was, "...do you want me to bring a box down?" I went to the restaurant to let them know what was going on and we called Albert to talk to him.  He was too far away to do anything about it and let me know that if could capture them, they were mine!  I also wrote Bob, the Chair of the local Beekeeping Association.  He wished me luck and said that if I caught them, he would buy them from me.  

Bill came down with a box, frames, my bee suit, a brush...but no gloves!  The bees are docile when they are swarming...right?  Yes, of course they are but if you accidentally bump into their stinger end, they still will react...and it still hurts when it happens.  I know.

This swarm was not an easy one to capture...no large mass hanging from a convenient branch that could be shaken into a box.  These bees were up against the trunk and had to be slowly brushed into the box.  They came away in huge clumps and I brushed and hoped I would get the queen and that I wouldn't damage her.  There were thousands of bees!  IT WAS EPIC!  My co-workers were watching from a safe distance.  Bill was being official photographer.

Brushing the bees into the box

I slowly brushed and finally the box was pretty full and the tree was almost empty.

Box full of bees

We moved the box to the truck and the rest of the bees followed.  I started putting frames in.  I only got 6 in and then we put the lid on. I sent Bill home with a box of bees and went back to work  Bill put the box in the beeyard.  I knew I had to go into them as soon as possible to add the rest of the frames and to give them another box so this healthy hive would have enough room.

The next day I set up a bottom and extra box and then set my new hive on top.  I then opened her up.  They had already started to build comb in the space left in the box beside the frames...remember a box holds 10 frames and I had only put in 6.  The comb they were building was sideways!

Sideways cob built in the empty space

Close up of sideways comb

I broke off this new comb, added the extra 4 frames and then shook all the bees from the temporary lid into the hive.  I then added the lid and thought...a perfect home!

Shaking the bees into the hive.

We christened her Queen Maggie in honour of the famous British actress, Maggie Smith who has probably played every Queen onstage.  We then left her to her own devices.  On Friday she was very busy.  I worked all day Saturday and during the day, Bill mentioned that Queen Maggie was very quiet.  On Sunday I finally had the opportunity to check the bees out myself.It was very, very quiet...too quiet for such a large colony so I opened her up.

Gone!  Queen Maggie had flown the coop with all her subjects...her wanderlust had not been appeased apparently.  So she is out there somewhere making a "better" home and I am back to 2 hives again.

It's like adopting a stray cat, giving it all its shots and a cosy bed only to have it wander off to the neighbour's house!

The same thing happened to the Chair of our Beekeeping Association so I don't feel so-o-o bad...but still...sheesh.

PS:  Albert, the original owner of the bees says that I should have put a frame of brood from another hive with the swarm and then they wouldn't have left because they would have taken care of the brood.  Next time.  :)