So... Bees.
I put the top bar hive out a couple of days ago, and this noontime moved it to it's final resting place.
This afternoon, we were showing it to B's Mother, along with the other work we did on the garden we did this weekend. B said, 'so yeah, now all we need are bees.' As we walk up the rest of the walk to Alec our huge Baldwin apple tree, there they were. A swarm of bees hanging out in the apple tree.
We called the local bee lady (no answer), some of our friends that have bees, (no answer; and some good advice). So, I guess we have to do this ourselves huh? We got out a ladder, put on some white clothes and a mosquito head cover, made up some 1:1 sugar syrup, and got the new extending loppers that B's mom gave us today. B went up on the ladder, as I needed to hold it upright (ish). Much slow trimming of branches and finally, it was reasonably clear. They were on three branches, so we needed to clip them one at a time (while holding a box underneath). B is very calm through all of this, but I am trying to hold a ladder to keep it from crashing my sweetie down 15 feet, _through_ a swarm of bees. So, some nervous.
We got about 2/3 of them into the box and marched it over to the hive. Unceremoniously, dumped them in, tried to put the top bars back on without crushing a huge mob of bees. Phew. There were still some back in the apple tree, and we are hoping the queen isn't one of them, as we weren't able to move them. Come nightfall, I will put the cover on.
Ok. Bees.
Edit: B was concerned that we didn't get the queen, so insisted that we go back and check. There was a clump still in the tree, which looked larger than it had when we left, so she grabbed it, boxed it, and we dumped it in the hive. Since in between I found my 'bee brush' (an old architects brush from my grandfather), I used that to try to brush all the bees inside. The ones outside, were gone five minutes later, and there didn't seem to be any in a rush to vacate the hive.
This afternoon, we were showing it to B's Mother, along with the other work we did on the garden we did this weekend. B said, 'so yeah, now all we need are bees.' As we walk up the rest of the walk to Alec our huge Baldwin apple tree, there they were. A swarm of bees hanging out in the apple tree.
We called the local bee lady (no answer), some of our friends that have bees, (no answer; and some good advice). So, I guess we have to do this ourselves huh? We got out a ladder, put on some white clothes and a mosquito head cover, made up some 1:1 sugar syrup, and got the new extending loppers that B's mom gave us today. B went up on the ladder, as I needed to hold it upright (ish). Much slow trimming of branches and finally, it was reasonably clear. They were on three branches, so we needed to clip them one at a time (while holding a box underneath). B is very calm through all of this, but I am trying to hold a ladder to keep it from crashing my sweetie down 15 feet, _through_ a swarm of bees. So, some nervous.
We got about 2/3 of them into the box and marched it over to the hive. Unceremoniously, dumped them in, tried to put the top bars back on without crushing a huge mob of bees. Phew. There were still some back in the apple tree, and we are hoping the queen isn't one of them, as we weren't able to move them. Come nightfall, I will put the cover on.
Ok. Bees.
Edit: B was concerned that we didn't get the queen, so insisted that we go back and check. There was a clump still in the tree, which looked larger than it had when we left, so she grabbed it, boxed it, and we dumped it in the hive. Since in between I found my 'bee brush' (an old architects brush from my grandfather), I used that to try to brush all the bees inside. The ones outside, were gone five minutes later, and there didn't seem to be any in a rush to vacate the hive.