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Date: | Sun, 3 May 1998 18:09:11 -0400 |
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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
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