Well, today I had an amazing experience.  Never
has happened before and will probably never
happen again.  I will keep this as short as I can
and still tell the story.
 
I was working in the garden and heard my bees
buzzing.  Sure enough they were swarming!  My
best hive that I found queen cells in the other
day and split the hive three ways.  I left one
queen cell just in case at the mother hive.
 
I called my wife over to watch the swarm.  I sat
right in front and many bees landed on me but
were not interested in me.  I had on shorts, tee
shirt and cap.  I mentioned to my wife, "Wouldn't
it be neat if I saw the queen".  Well lo and
behold she came out and was walking up the front
of the hive.  My first response was to grab her
and I did.  I held her cupped in my two hands.  I
thought I could get the bees to swarm on my hand
but they didn't.  I placed my hands at the
entrance on the bottom board, but they didn't act
like I had the queen, so I opened my fingers a
little so they could find her.  Well out she
flew.  I remember reading on this site that she
may fly right back.  And she did!  Right where I
picked her up before.  This time I grabbed her
and got a handful of bees with her.  I yelled to
my wife, (got very upset at me yelling at her).
Do something!
 Well we managed to set up a hive.  She took off
the inner cover and I shook the bees quickly into
the hive (drawn comb).  I waited to see what
would happen.  My wife said she saw the queen fly
off.  I sat and watched.  No bees went into the
new hive which was close to the old hive.  So I
moved it up next to the old hive.  No bees going
in or out.  Ah shucks.
 I sat there for awhile watching and hoping for I
don't know what.  The bees seemed to stop
swarming and went back into the hive.  Not only
that, but they started stinging me.  Took a few
to the face and various other parts.
 
Later today I went into the hive and found that
they had not swarmed.  There were just too many
bees still in there and also found two ripe queen
cells.
 
I only keep bees for fun and this was about as
good as I could expect.
 
billy bee