If ever there was a day, when one could hardly function, today was that kind of day for me. Dire pain from an intestinal disorder, I pretty much resigned myself to a sedentary day. It was the Lord’s plan “A” but my plan “B”. I was supposed to be out helping with the volunteer team doing clean-up work on the homes suffering from recent flooding here in Vermont.
About one o’clock the phone rang. It was Scott. I had forgotten that he had gone to check on our New Haven apiary site. He said, “I found a swarm in a tree!” He asked if I could deliver to him a ladder, clippers, and a hive box. I knew that I couldn’t lift a ladder, so he settled for a step stool. It took what strength I had to load these things into the car, along with my bee gear, camera and mini camcorder.
A little time at the steering wheel I thought, “this may not have been such a good idea”. Just that itty bit of work had challenged me. I couldn’t believe how weak I was. Never the less—I made it to the swarm site.
Scott unloaded the car, while I geared up. This was my first time getting this close to active bees since my little incident last July. With thick work gloves on, (you’ll see my bulky thumb in the video) I took some still shots, and then I began to videotape Scott as he decided how to wrangle this swarm.
In just a few minutes the deed was done. He examined the remaining tiny cluster of honeybees still clinging to the tree trunk. We wanted to determine if the queen was still in the cluster, or if we were lucky enough to have her shaken into the hive box.
Peaked as I was, I removed my veil and gloves, and headed home—leaving the rest of the details in Scott’s capable hands. It would be a few hours later when I heard the good news that some of the honeybees had gathered on the outside of the hive to waggle their behinds, which sends out pheromones to tell the rest of their swarm mates, “come on in—the queen is here”.
Catching a honeybee swarm is still a thrill every time we are given the opportunity.
1 comment:
Great video!
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