A couple of weeks ago, we drove into our driveway and saw a lot of pollen in the air–at least that’s what I thought it was until Elizabeth urgently told us, “Look at all the bees!” She is very afraid of bees and they were definitely swarming around our car. David drove the car up to the side of the garage and got out, away from the bushes where they were swarming. Beth and I needed to run some errands, so we didn’t even get out of the car, we just drove away.
When we got back, the bees were back in the bush, but I have never seen anything like it before.
I can’t believe I got this close. Here is a better picture:
While we were gone, David had called our egg and honey source–The Ferguson’s–and asked if they wanted some bees. When we have been over there to get honey and eggs, we have seen the beekeeping stuff and know they keep bees. They were interested. So instead of killing all the bees, Mr. Ferguson got some honey.
First, he sprayed cool water on them to calm them down.
Then he took the big bucket and gently bumped the branch so the bees would fall into the bucket. He was hoping to get the queen, because if he got the queen, the other bees would try to find her, and he could get most of the bees and bring them back to start a new hive.
He placed the cover with a screen on it on top of the bucket and we waited.
As you can see, a lot of the bees started to congregate on the bucket. This meant that he had gotten the queen bee.
He pulled the cover a little way off the bucket, so the bees could get in to the queen.
After a while, he gently used his brush to brush the remaining bees in the bucket.
Almost all of them went in.
We were left with very few of them flying around. Mr. Ferguson said the bees would go back to the original hive they started from. Apparently, this swarm was trying to develop a new hive with a new queen, which is supposed to be common in the springtime.
I was so impressed with the whole thing. I didn’t even have beekeeping gear on, but Mr. Ferguson said they wouldn’t hurt me–and I stayed further away than he did.
Well, the bees got a new home and we didn’t have to kill them. I’m hoping to get some good honey out of the deal!