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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.
Been busy as heck here lately.
Had to do some work on my septic tank drain, lots of hair like roots.
Installed a rain gutter on my daughter’s house–needs two more.
And among other things acted like a beekeeper. I made some swarm boxes and hung them in various places around the lake owned by the company I worked for. I’ve been checking them every two to three days and yesterday evening it finally paid off. I had a swarm moving into one of my planter bucket swarm boxes. The cluster of bees seen in this picture is maybe 1/5 the total size of the swarm.
I set up a hive box and lowered the buckets down and eventually set them on the hive box so I could separate the buckets.
Notice the shrubbery standing taller than the grass. Those aren’t tree saplings. It’s lots of poison ivy I’m wading through but I’m not allergic to it,
I separated the halves of the trap and shook the bees into the hive. This is just part of them.
A look inside the top half. Every bit was totally covered with bees before I shook them into the hive. They can hang onto the rough interior of the bucket pretty good.
You always have to have a hero shot.
I found the swarm around 5pm yesterday and went home to gather the stuff needed to box them up. After getting them in the hive box you have to make sure the queen is in the hive. I didn’t spot her but the way they were marching into the hive and fanning makes me certain that she was in there. Then I waited until they settled in for the night before I plugged the entrance and loaded them in my truck for the ride home. It was 8:30 when I got home and put them in the apiary.
This was my first swarm catch and it was an interesting adventure. The bees were very docile even through all the jostling and bumping. It was a lot of work but I probably came home with close to $200 worth of bees.
I videoed all of the catch and will post it on youtube later.
Not quite done yet. I’ve been busy as heck plus a pinched nerve that’s giving me some back pain. Going to have to see the chiropractor again.
I was wondering how colorfast the India Ink would be that I did the riser stripe with so I finally did a smear test on a piece I cut off the riser block during the first steps on it. I used Minwax Antique Oil Finish on it. I like it better than Tung Oil, Teak Oil, and Linseed Oil.
Here’s the first of many layers of oil with a lot of buffing to come.
