Swarm !

Well today was one of those crazy days !  All of last week we were on vacation in Cape May. Life was good. Weather was beautiful. This morning we started our trip back home around lunch time. We had to make a couple of pit stops to pick up two hermit cabs and a back up Squirmy from Five Below. On the way home we hit traffic from exit 63 until around 81 from"construction". Slow moving. Just after the construction, Val got a call on her cell phone. It was my dad telling me that my hive swarmed ! Luckily I had just purchased a bunch of equipment from a beekeeper, so I told my dad to put a deep box under the swarm and sweep it into the box. He asked if they would sting and I said that they shouldn't. Usually honey bees, when swarming, are very docile.  They are full of honey and being homeless, have nothing to defend.  I had a spare veil at my parents for my dad to use and he agreed to give it a try. When I got home I gave him a call and he said that he got 65% into the box. He ran outside to check the status and reported that all the bees in the box flew back to the tree, so he did not get the queen. He also got a few stings in the process. I quickly unpacked the car and then hopped in my car and drove out there. I had just spent about 3 hrs driving and it takes about 1 hr to get to my parents. On the way there, I was thinking about how to catch this swarm. I decided to put a sugar and water mixture in a spray bottle and spray them. Then I would sweep them into the deep box. When I got there, they were still on the plum tree about 6 feet up on a 4 inch diameter limb.   This tree could not be cut. My dad had a step ladder set up. He had propped up on it a hive stand and a deep box just under the swarm.  No bees were in the deep. I had brought an old frame of comb with me. It had some nectar in it. I had seen a Utube video where a guy captured a swarm buy putting a deep over the swarm and the bees marched into it. I had some luck when the bees started moving into the deep from the branch, but they were slow moving. I decided to spray the swarm with sugar water and sweep them into the deep with a bee brush. My dad was inside when I decided to do this. I sprayed the swarm with the sugar water and then slowly swept the bees into the deep. All was going well. I kept spraying and sweeping until only a hand full of honey bees clung to the tree. I decided to spray and sweep one last time to get the last handful. On my last sweep, I accidentally hit the deep which was balancing on the step ladder and it went crashing to the ground. There were bees all over the place. Bees on the ground, in the tree and in the deep box. I had no idea of I had the queen or not !  I put up some saw horses and decided to put the deep onto this set up to make it more secure. Then I tried to scoop the bees on the ground onto a cardboard top. Most flew away. So now there were some bees in the deep and many on the tree. I sprayed the ones on the tree and swept them into a cardboard box then dumped them into the deep a few times. Again, I had not idea where the queen was. Finally may dad came out and I was at my wits end. I said maybe the queen is in the deep or on the tree, but I had to get back home because the kids were having a swim team party. If I caught the swarm cool, if not they could go find a new home. My dad and I hung out for a few minutes.  I noticed dead worker bees all over the place. I must have crushed a bunch during the sweeping. I felt pretty bad and I thought all was lost. Then on the ground near the saw horses I noticed a big bee. At first I thought it was a drone, but then to my amazement it was a QUEEN !!!  I was freaking out trying to grab it. My dad kept an eye on it and then put a broom in front of it to climb on. It climbed onto the broom and then I guided it into the deep !!!!!  Wow - what luck to have found the queen !!!!  After that I had to head home for the party. I'll check in with my dad in the morning to see what happened. Hopefully I got the right queen.  On a side note. I checked my hive near where the swarm came from (I think) and it looked packed. You couldn't tell that a swarm had just come from there, Maybe it didn't?????

I'll check in with my dad tomorrow.