>Seems, the good old days are coming back!

Glad they are in your area but I get many calls from people which never see
a bee (when they used to be plentiful). I had two calls from gardeners which
said they had to pollinate their mellons this year by hand to get mellons.

I think for the most part we are a long way from the feral population in the
U.S. we had before mites. In the south it seems AHB is filling the feral
spots of EHB.

I did not get one swarm call this year in my area but with my beekeeping
methods swarms from my bees are rare.

 Last year I think I had three. One was kind of funny. The swarm was in a
pine tree about a mile from my house. The farmer drove his tractor under the
tree and hit the swarm in his face. The bees had made comb so he got stung a
couple times . He was upset (and swollen) and said the swarm must have been
from my hives. I said no way of knowing and he calmed down. I later checked
and the queen was one of my special marked queens. Guess he was right!

Another strange swarm happened years ago. I had a bee yard up on a hill in
some black Locust trees. I had to drive through some high sumac bushes
climbing the hill to the yard. The bushes were shaking as I drove up the
hill and a swarm on a high bush was dislodged and fell right in the open
window into the front seat with me. Bees all over me and the inside of the
truck but did not get stung but took awhile to get all the bees in the swarm
box.

Years ago I used to deal in antiques and had been at a sale in North
Missouri. I stopped on the way back at a place called Jamesport. I was
sitting in the truck when I got a knock on the window. Seems there was a
swarm in a low bush in front of a store and was not a beekeeper in the town.
They saw the bee business name on the truck and wondered if I would help.
The swarm was only about three feet off the ground in a Lilac bush. I didn't
have any beekeeping equipment or smoker with me. A crowd gathered when I
said I would help.I walked over to the swarm (which had built  a small comb)
and shook the swarm into a drawer of an antique chest of drawers I had on
the truck and then slide the drawer in the chest of drawers  and left. Took
only a couple minutes. jaws dropped watching. especially when they saw I was
stung 5 or 6 times. As I waved to the crowd one bee was injecting  her
stinger in my forehead.  part of the crowd was saying I was crazy and the
other brave. I had a good laugh as I drove off. I drove the 100 miles home
with the swarm in the drawer and put in a hive and they made honey the first
year. I wrote about the swarm on BEE-L when happened years ago.

bob


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