Epic Experience

I was notified by Friend Coralia about the event happening down the road from here house.    A swarm of bees was forming on a field post. This is what it looked like.  You can see the bee hives in the background.  These bees got too crowded in their wooden bee hive homes and decided to venture off to new digs.  The barn across the road was most likely where the scout bees were looking - I took the initiative to make up their minds for them!

Here you see the act of swarm collecting.  I was hopefully the bees would not be too "pissy" (a word frequently used by bee keepers to describe bees that are mad and sting often), but found out on my first scoop that they were not in a very good mood.  Who can blame them?  They had spent the night clustered on this fence post (got down to 45 degrees).  Multiple stings were delivered by the time I finished; all to my hands.  They say bees stings are good for arthritis.  I can only say, today, my hands really itch!! 

I have never seen so many bees in one spot!  This was intimidating, exciting, exhausting, and rewarding.  The company who owns the hives still has not called.  I have taken their bees and I do not think they care.  The bees seem to like their new digs.  I set them up with lots of space, a couple of frames of honey, and a great location.  Buying bees is not a cheap endeavor.  Catching a swarm is a lot of work, time, and sting-taking, but these bees were free!

I am anticipating honey this year!  Probably alot of honey from this colony!!  This weekends forecast indicates SNOW so these bees have been well taken care of....rumor is, another swarm showed up last night......