Mock Orange, Cherry Harvest, CAUGHT A WILD HONEYBEE SWARM

Well, that was a pretty killer day yesterday. I have never caught a "wild" swarm before, they have always been MY bees that have swarmed and then I catch them. Not yesterday though!

In the morning I was doing my rounds and noticed the Mock Orange have fully bloomed. These things blow up in a profusion of white flowers covering the bushes. It is one of the swallowtail butterflies favorite flowers on the farm. Every year the swallowtails show up beginning of May for the lilacs then flit about the various berry bushes until mid June when the mock orange blow up and they attack them.

The summer squash are getting really big really fast and are already filling in the rows. This will be an interesting experiment this year in close proximity squash plantings. It may have been a mistake or it may prove bountiful... I will see as the season wears on.

The birds have been attacking the cherry tree so I got the ladder put together with my orchard leg setup and then harvested the few cherries that the tree held. It is many more than prior years but still a a meager amount. The other tree will hopefully give us at least twice as many but it is still working on ripening.

I rolled another bale into the sheep and this one sucked. It was kinda oblong, fatter on one side than the other, and it had a bit of a flat spot from sitting for 10 months. I managed to get it rolled in and the sheep eventually piled in around it.

I was sitting at my computer and I looked out the slider towards the little creek and I saw a bunch of bugs flying around. It was a LOT more than normally is around the farm and as soon as I saw it the thought flashed into my head, "it's a swarm!" That is the only time there is that many bugs flying around that fast in that kind of back and forth pattern. So I walked down to the creek and followed the masses in the air until I saw the pile of bees on the branches just above the creek. It was a swarm!

I ran up the hill and grabbed my bee gear, gloves, veil, and flight suit then grabbed the package from a 5 pound bee package I ordered years ago. I thought I was right when I popped a stick with a mass of bees on it into the cage and the other bees started to mass the cage. I let them work their way into the cage for a while and I then walked back across the creek to look at it from the other side and found that I had REALLY missed the boat, or bees that is.

I looked across the creek at the cage and then I happened to look up and saw it.

The bees had swarmed onto this branch above me and I had missed it for a good 10 minutes. They were in a 2 foot long by 5 inch wide mass on the end of the branch. I had to run up to the garden shed to get my pole saw which I used to pull the branch down to me. I then picked up the cage and lowered the branch into the hole of the cage and once all the way in I snapped the branch off. After a bit I slowly pulled the branch out and shook it as I went to get the bees off and into the cage.

I set the cage down to let the bees find their way in for a bit. There were still hundreds of bees flying around and on the branches and bushes around.

This all took place right above the creek edge under the trees and in amongst bushes..

I gave it a bit of time then decided I would take the swarm to their new home. I had gotten a hive ready with a super on the bottom, a super on top with most frames removed, and an empty super. The cage fit perfectly upside down in the hive so the opening faced down towards the frames. I set the empty super on top then the lid and cover. I checked on them the rest of the day and by evening they seemed to be making themselves at home and there was a steady stream of bees in and out of the hive entrance.

Today I have already been to town to pickup 6 barrels of grain at the brewery and I will be going out and emptying them once I finish this post. I should probably do some weed eating in the yard, more weeding in the gardens, and I need to get stuff together for scout camp tomorrow into Sunday up north.