Small Swarm - Deers don't eat bees!

Got a call from my uncle Brent the other day (5-23-13). His wife, Sandy, was visiting a couple that had a small swarm in one of their trees. He was wondering if I was interested. Free bees! Yes please!

He called me back with the address and I took a bit of a long break from work to go catch them.

small swarm

They were hanging about 2 feet off the ground in a small lilac bush. There were quite a few dead bees on the lawn underneath the swarm. The lady living there told me that the swarm had been there for several days and that her husband had been spraying them with deer repellant until she stopped him. What the!? I guess I should be glad that the deer didn't eat them. Or glad that he didn't have a can of raid.

Well he may have killed some but there were still enough to make it worth catching.  I spread out a sheet on the lawn under the bush, set the hive directly under them and gave them a little bump. They all dropped into the hive. A minute or two later, about half of them were back on the branch. I knocked them down again. Back to the branch. The third time I actually pruned that bit of the branch and dropped it into the hive with them. Success!

Hey Sandy, aren't you afraid of bees? :-)

All gathering in

fanning nasanov - "This is the place!"

I closed up most of the top of the hive and they all moved in.

I waited about 5 minutes and closed it the rest of the way up and took them home.

It's a small swarm but it's early enough in the year, I think they'll do fine.