Was it just yesterday I said I would like another bee hive? Well I got one.
Here is how it happened....
Doug came home from work and he loaded my truck bed with all the necessary tools and equipment to work with the bees while I fixed him a quick bite of lunch. He told me to go ahead and back to the hives while he fired up the smoker. I started towards the hives and what happened next was truly amazing.
I was right at them when the air filled with bees. Thousands of bees. Buzzing and swarming all around me. I yelled to Doug "We're too late!!!"
We stood and watched helplessly, hoping they would land where we could reach them. They did. In the top of a magnolia tree about fifty feet from the hive. We gave them a few minutes to cluster and sprang into action. He set the new brood box on the bucket of the bobcat and moved towards them while I ran to the house to mix some sugar water. Next he raised the bucket level to them, clipped the branches they were on and dropped them in the empty box above the brood box. We spritzed the bees with sugar water and doused the bottom board as well. Then we watched. Over the next 45 minutes or so every bee went inside the hive. Like I said it was amazing!
Late this evening after they were all in the hive for the night, we moved them to a different location. We will check them in a couple of days. And so we have hive #3...
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