swarms.

trailtwister · August 02, 2015, 07:34:58 AM

First one of 2015.

If you see one of these do not reach for the wasp hornet spray, Instead reach for the phone and call a bee keeper who collects swarms. Don't know a bee keeper there are several choices to find one. We are on the list at the local animal control office, sheriffs office, county extension office and the local USDA office. We also belong to the state beekeepers club, the regional club and several local clubs with in a 50 mile radius and are on their list.

swarms are harm less and will normally leave in a few hours to about 3 days, key word is normally.

This one was on the ladies lawn in Port Austin a good hour and a half from my home. I found the queen and caged her inside the hive. the bees would have went in with out her being in there but went faster with her inside. While waiting she took me to her front yard for the view.

Lake Huron

Al

trailtwister · August 02, 2015, 07:55:33 AM

A reminder if you see a swarm call a bee keeper who collects them. Most do it free of charge.
A very old saying is a swarm in May worth a load of hay, A swarm in June worth a silver spoon, A swarm in July let them fly.

Just two weeks ago we had just finished up hive inspections in the back yard. I was putting frames in the solar melter to melt the wax out of them when I hear a loud buzzing noise off my left shoulder. I have dead outs stacked there waiting to go in the solar melter. So I turn and look see a swarm of bees swirling about in the sky. I run in the house tell the wife we have a swarm and run back out to start drumming on a 5 gallon pail bottom. Kare comes out and starts drumming also theory is the bees think it is thunder and will land (always have for me too.) so a bee keeper can collect them.
Their choice for landing was a hive I had setting waiting for the melt down. Interesting thing is I had heard of this happening but I never had seen it happen till 2014 when I had a swarm come in just about the same way and go into the same hives but didn't live thru the winter. This is pictures after I was sure they were going to move in. at first the whole from of the hive was covered with bees so you could not see what color it was.

Other swarms.

If there was any danger I would not allow my grand daughter to stand under one.

Al

FinsnFur · August 02, 2015, 09:44:01 AM

I'd be watching from my binoculars

The second pic down from the top up there, there's a bee getting ready to sting you in your cheek.

trailtwister · August 02, 2015, 11:44:40 AM

No just doing a fly by to check me out.

I love it when grown men can be madeto scream and run like crazy chickens, Not going to say little girls cause the grand daughter didn't run nor ask if I was sure it was safe.

Al

FinsnFur · August 02, 2015, 03:08:32 PM

Yah Id be running

JohnP · August 03, 2015, 11:18:36 AM

Al, good info here thanks. Maybe you should start a topic on beekeeping, start to finish and include the harvesting of the honey.

trailtwister · August 04, 2015, 04:01:12 AM

I can do that.

Al

Hawks Feather · August 04, 2015, 07:58:48 AM

I am with the 'get away from them' group. Not that they scare me, but because I am allergic to their sting. I was on a farm when I was young and watched as the swarm left a tree and then landed on a metal fence pole. They were there for a couple of hours and then when I looked again they were gone. But I won't forget the sound.

Jerry

trailtwister · August 04, 2015, 10:31:35 AM

Do you carry a Epi Pen. You could die quickly if truly allergic to a honey bee sting.
It is called elliptic shock, with a swelling of the throat and difficulty breathing.

If you just swell up badly and the area gets red and hot to the touch that is just a normal reaction.

Al

Hawks Feather · August 04, 2015, 12:57:56 PM

I don't carry an Epi Pen since I don't react quickly - or at least I didn't the last time I was stung many years ago. That one was on the bottom of my foot by a wasp at the beach. By the next morning my leg was swelled tight and had red lines running up to about my knee. Prior to that it was a honey bee on my hand and it swelled tight. So it wasn't a normal reaction.

Jerry

FinsnFur · August 04, 2015, 08:35:04 PM

Quote from: Hawks Feather on August 04, 2015, 07:58:48 AM
I was on a farm when I was young and watched as the swarm left a tree and then landed on a metal fence pole. They were there for a couple of hours and then when I looked again they were gone. But I won't forget the sound.

Jerry

I dont think I've ever seen one. It sounds interesting, I'd kinda like to see one...but

naaaaaa not really.
Al what are they doing when they swarm? I cant wrap my head around why they would be going around clinging to things in such masses when clearly there is work to be done...well...you know what I mean.

trailtwister · August 05, 2015, 05:19:05 AM

Honey bee venom and wasp venom is different. Most people won't have a reaction to one if they have a reaction to the other.
Swelling with red lines sounds like a normal reaction to me although on the strong side.

Honey bees swarm to increase the population in nature and when bee keepers don't do things to prevent it from happening.
In the home colony things are starting to get crowded, workers build queen cells take 14 days to hatch, stop feeding the queen on about day 10 or 11, One queen cell hatches mass of bees plus old queen leave the hive, Old queen has not flown for a very long time so can not go far before tiring. They cluster around the queen hanging on what ever object, send out scouts to find a new place to call home. Scouts return tell cluster they have found a new home. Delegation is sent to check things out in the several locations the scouts told the cluster about. If every thing checks out the delegation returns and informs the cluster that they have indeed found a suitable new home then off they fly to it.
Some times it doesn't take very long to find a new suitable home so only stay clustered for a hour or less. Average I would guess is around 24 hours. Some times they never find a new home and will build comb on a tree limb. I removed on from an Apple tree that had been there all summer and the home owner didn't know till the leaves started falling.

Al

Okanagan · August 05, 2015, 09:42:58 AM

Interesting. Growing up in E. WA State it was fairly common to see a swarm on the move, a river of bees in the air strung out for who knows how long, following one another on the same flight path. If you drove through one in a vehicle at highway speed you'd splatter 6-10 bees on the windshield in a few seconds and then no more. I always assumed that it was worker bees following a queen up front of the procession somewhere. One time by a rest stop a lot of bees were milling around an area 150 feet across and someone said that the queen had been killed by a vehicle as the swarm crossed the highway, and that the rest of the bees were hanging around.

Only saw one swarm on the ground briefly when I was a kid, under a house eave.

trailtwister · August 05, 2015, 11:05:20 AM

Yes many times if quen were to get kiled while on th emove4 they will hang about. But after a while they will return to their old hive.
Amazing little critters who can find the4ir way back to a hive 6 miles away, Know when th eold hive hs been moved and can tell there hive fom one sitting 18 to 20 inches away.

Al

FinsnFur · August 07, 2015, 11:43:58 PM

Wow, that is interesting stuff.

trailtwister · August 08, 2015, 04:57:33 AM

Yes I think so and is why I enjoy it so much.

Al