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Sedgefield Swarm
Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 2:17 pm
by ski
Picked up about a 3 pound swarm in Sedgefield today. They were about 6 feet up in a peach tree, nice folks to deal with, gentle bees and easy to put in the box. Its nice to catch swarms that are not from my hives.
Thanks for the referral mike91553.
Ski
Re: Sedgefield Swarm
Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 3:48 pm
by Wally
NICE. Any pics?
Re: Sedgefield Swarm
Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 4:13 pm
by ski
No pics right now.
They took pictures and are supposed to send them later.
I will post them when get them.
Re: Sedgefield Swarm
Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 6:07 pm
by Wally
OK. I'll wait.
Re: Sedgefield Swarm
Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 8:39 pm
by mike91553
Glad you got them ski , I believe they told me the bees had been in the tree four or five days. Had they started building much comb?
Re: Sedgefield Swarm
Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 7:33 am
by ski
Mike,
They told me as well that the bees had been there for 5-7 days. There were two groups in the tree one was the 2-3 pound and the second about the size of a tennis ball on the opposite side of the tree which we almost missed. The large group had mo comb but the small group had a 2-3 inch section of comb on the end of a branch.
One guess is that they started on the end of the branch built some comb and were displaced by the winds from the storms and moved to a more sturdy section of the tree.
I had them in a nuc by themselves yesterday. Today I looked for a queen and did not see one so I sprayed them with sugar syrup and shook them into the rest of the swarm.
A pic of the wax they had drawn. Still waiting on pics from the owner.
Edited 5/18/2011
Got some pics that the owner took.
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w45/ ... field1.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w45/ ... field6.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w45/ ... ield13.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w45/ ... ield18.jpg
Also got the message below from the beekeeper whose bees swarmed. He travels a lot and has not had time to go to classes or meetings but is doing some reading and has a beekeeper contact in Hickory. I refered him to the Guilford County web site.
My neighbor (the wife) I had a good talk with and she has settled down about me having bees in the first place. She is first on my honey list this Fall. As with a lot of things in nature she was more educated by the Hollywood version of how things work (I think she thought they were Africanized Killer Bees) than by the facts. You working without a full suit or even gloves was the biggest eye opener to her that this was not a really dangerous situation. I had a bees 101 talk with her after the fact about why the swarm happened and I think things are better because of it.
