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I had a visitor when I went out to get the mail yesterday. Another turtle has shown up and I think it is a Red Slider. I found one a couple of years ago under my Mulberry tree and it looked like it was trying to dig a hole to lay eggs. I went out a little later to check and it was gone. I must have disturbed its digging and it moved on.
I pulled up to the mailbox Friday and could see something sticking out of the grass by the edge of the road. Turned out to be this big fella.
I was staying with my granddaughter that day and on my way home I did a swarm trap check. I had another swarm move into the same trap that I caught the last two in. Out of seven traps I caught three in this one and none in the others.
Saturday evening was gathering time and I brought them home.
Here’s another short video to cure any insomnia you have.
Glad to hear TJ is mending well. I know a couple of guys that went through that surgery and didn’t follow the therapy regimen. It didn’t work out well for them.
Richard, when I was in southern Arizona (on a different kind of hunting trip) I heard and saw three large swarms fly over camp. You could hear them coming. We also saw a large swarm in a tree when we were out the first day and I told everybody to circle way around it.
My brother sent me this picture. He went out to gather eggs last Sunday and when he reached into the nest box he felt fur. He got out his flashlight to see what critter had gotten into the nest and found three kittens and two eggs. Next day was three kittens and four eggs.
One of their cats had moved in with the chickens over the winter and they get along fine.
I was watching my granddaughter last Tuesday so we went to look.
I thought I’d give everybody a peek at the place I’ve been bee hunting. I retired from the big electric company here in Kansas and I have access to right at 800 acres of timber and lake ground. The best thing is it’s only about six miles away from my house.
We’ve been having some rain so it’s a little muddy.
I call this the Wood Duck Marsh or mid summer it is Skeeter Flats. Plenty of water for them right now and my mushroom hunting area in under water.
I took some video in this section of timber a few years back when I was turkey hunting. The ground was saturated and every step was squishy underfoot. Every step would result in a big cloud of mosquitos swirling up about knee level.
Had quite a day yesterday. Finished my hive checks that I got rained out of the evening before and got stung on the end of my trigger finger through my rubber glove. It was my fault because I mashed her when I pulled a frame. Finger is Ok and slightly swelled.
I went out for a drive to check the swarm traps and saw this young Great Horned Owl. It was either having a hard time learning to fly or it had accidently fallen out of the nest.
I got to the trap where I caught the first swarm and saw activity around it so I went home and got my stuff and did another catch.
This swarm is about 1/3 the size of the first one. The bees were all congregated at the top of the bucket. The end of the planter bucket is 12 inches in diameter and the bees are about 1.5 inches deep.
I think they had gone into the bucket that morning or maybe the evening before just before it started raining. They really didn’t want to leave the bucket. Every time I shook them onto the hive and table about half would go back to the bucket. After the fourth or fifth shake I laid a shirt across the open end until the majority had calmed down and gone into the hive. I had one sting my leather glove, again, because I had mashed her but it didn’t get to skin this time.
I failed to spot the queen but I’m sure she is in the hive because they all marched in and stayed. I’ll find out tomorrow afternoon when I open the door and let them check out the area.
Being in the middle of a couple of thousand bees flying about you is a neat experience. The bees were never aggressive toward me during the transfer from the bucket to hive even through all the shaking and bumping.
I went out to fill the birdbath (bee waterer) and noticed a lot of bees around a nuc box that I did a walk away split on around a week ago. I figured it was probably other bees robbing the hive so I opened it up. I was surprised to find this queen inside.
I am thinking I may have caught a small swarm that moved with the split. There was not enough time for them to produce a new queen.
I decided to check the swarm that I caught eleven days ago. They have been drawing out a lot of wax and there are eggs and larvae in different stages of development already and they have cross combed two frames very badly. It’s amazing how quickly they work.
So now if the queen stays in the nuc box I doubled my hives in just over a week.
