Flight of the Honey Bees

There's a lot of buzz in the air created by the wings of honey bees as they form swarms and leave their homes (hives) that have become too crowded. This is good way for bee keepers to "hire" more workers for their honey factories. :)

I don't know a whole heck of a lot about honey bees, other than we've kept them before,  lost our entire operation to foulbrood disease, and now Jim wants to keep bees again.

It's been years since we kept bees, so Jim is listening to the advice from bee keepers Bill Bebee and Bob Nelson. Both men are local hive keepers and honey producers. Bill is a supplier of bee equipment and Bob is pretty handy at capturing swarms.

A few days ago, Bob and Sue took Jim and me on a tour of their property, which borders a creek, to show us their various bee yards and the bee traps that they have placed in trees to capture swarms that come barreling down the water way each Spring. 

I took a few pics of traps only because when we were at the Nelson's the bees had not found traps yet. It was a case of bad timing, because later that day weary renegade bees spotted the temporary homes placed in trees and decided that it was a good time to stop over to rest their tired little wings. Sort of like checking into bee hotels :)

Sue took these pics and emailed them to me. One of these swarms is destined to take up residence here on Nazor Rd, where plenty of fruit trees will welcome them with open arms...I mean, limbs :)

 

 I took a few minutes to look up bee swarms on the Internet, and like this article from Growing Small Farms by the North Carolina State University's Cooperative Extension because it has plenty of pictures that illustrate the steps in capturing swarms.

 

 

Marcheta *staying clear of this "sting" operation!