Swarm, Buzz and Basketball

Today is April 4th and we have had 3 more swarms since I posted about our first one about a week and a half ago. Today is also the day for the final game of the NCAA tournament between Butler and UConn. Anyway, here's what happened.

On April 2, Craig was home alone when he watched a whirlwind looking swarm moving up into the wax myrtle between our house and the next door neighbor's house. He rescued those with a bucket on a pole and when I returned, he had them safe in a hive box where they remain - we think. The next day was Sunday, April 3 and about 10:00 that morning, he called me with an urgent message - another swarm. They flew up into a tree and a short time later, they moved over to the neighbor's yard, under a wooden bench. Craig used a wide shovel and buckets to gather up this bundle of buzzing maniacs. Let me say, he was none too pleased when I returned and promptly left for an important meeting as soon as my bee gear was donned. My job, and Emily helped, was to get them out of the mess of sticks, leaves, yard mulch, etc and into their hive box. Bees were everywhere but we managed to get the queen and enough of her supporters into the box where they are living until we get them transferred over to a hive. The box where they are staying temporarily is a nuc box with frames so we hope the transition will be a smoothe one.

So today, another swarm. We had zero equipment to house another swarm so Craig and I went over to Busy Bee Apiaries in Chapel Hill to purchase enough equipment to get us through the recent rash of swarms. Is the moon full or are they just being difficult? They landed in Cindy's yard next door in a tree above the home of her chickens. Cindy is a fabulous neighbor and supports the bumbling around of our bees. She has some great chickens (all girls) who are super curious about our bees. The girls closely watched today as we removed swarm number 4 from above their house. I was so busy helping Craig that I didn't get to take many pictures. They seemed to be cheering us on as Craig climbed up the ladder and I held the capture bucket.

We'll see what tomorrow will bring. The weather may be a bit rainy so let's hope the bees will stay put so we can focus on something besides swarm rescue.

Sting report: Craig 5; Debbie 0. Unlike the basketball game tonight, lowest score wins. Yay Debbie.