A call and MORE bees!

Last night my neighbor called and said that the sheriff had called to tell her that a swarm of bees had landed on a chair in town and could she come get them. She called me to see if I had a place for them. Now I have room for probably 50 hives, so I said sure. She went off to catch the bees and I took 4 concrete blocks down the hill into the meadow near the other two hives. I had no plastic to set down first so they are sitting in the middle of weeds.

As soon as I got the blocks placed, here came my neighbor with a cardboard box (full of bees) and a nuc box to put them in. We suited up and proceeded with the "install". We got the nuc placed on the blocks annd proceeded to open the box of bees. There were probably 2-3 pounds of bees in the box. I held the box and she scooped the bees out. Lots of them went down into the nuc, but LOTS of them were buzzing all around us. I ran back to the house to get my bee brush so we could push them out of the box.

We got as many as we cound into the nuc and then put the lid on it. After about 10 minutes the ones still on the box had congregated in clumps so we made a second pass at getting them in. We left the box next to the hive. This morning there were two clumps of bees on the box, but I didn't have time to fool with them before work. I will check when I get home to see if we still have more bees or not!

The secret will be if we have the queen. Is so I think they may stay - if not, well we will cross that bridge then!