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Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:16:30 -0400 |
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James Fischer asks: “7) What's the furthest anyone's seen a swarm settle
on a branch from the parent hive? A hundred yards?”
Funny you should ask. Last summer, on the 4th of July actually, I had a
swarm issue forth from a hive in my back yard. At first it settled high up
in an Alder tree close by. Not able to reach them, I kept a close eye on
the swarm in hopes that they would reposition themselves more to my
advantage. I even set up an empty hive down in the woods about a hundred
yards away. They stayed up there in that tree for two or three hours. At
one point after, verifying they were still there, I went down to look at my
trap just to see if I could make some improvements. When I came back not
more than ten minutes later my swarm was gone. I went to look at my trap
again to see if I had gotten lucky. Nothing. About a half hour latter,
after I had written my bees off, I got a call. It was from a guy who was
in charge of setting up the fireworks display down at the waterfront about
a quarter mile away. Seems a swarm of bees had settled in a pine tree
right in the middle of where a couple hundred people were just starting to
gather for the festivities. He had gotten my name and number from I don’t
know where and was wondering if I would be kind enough to get those bees
out of there. I jumped in my truck with a cardboard box, a veil and some
pruning loppers and went on down there. The sheriff's deputy let me
through the cordon, and with a whole bunch of folks looking on, I commenced
to capture that basketball sized swarm ehich was on an outer branch at
about eye level. Everyone was quite impressed, and I had the distinct
feeling of being a genuine hero. The guy who had called me thanked me
profusely and asked if they owed me anything. I said no that I was happy
to do it as a public service and sheepishly but very gratefully I drove
back home with what were almost certainly my own wayward bees. Somehow I
didn’t think it necessary to mention this at the time though.
So I learned that day that swarms can settle more than a hundred yards
away. Just thought you might find that story amusing.
Steve Noble
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