Captured a Swarm!!!

What an exciting day!  This afternoon Dawn received a phone call from Jason Knierim from rural Watson.  He had heard me on the radio about a month ago talking about bees, and he told Dawn that a wild hive near his house had swarmed, and he wondered if we wanted the bees.  Well, of course we want the bees!!!!!  However, tonight was a bit busy with a band concert with the kids, so after the concert Dawn and I loaded the truck with all the equipment we could think of and headed out to the middle of nowhere.  When we arrived at the locationafter dark it didn't take long to find the swarm hanging on a branch next to a fence just across the road from the wild hive.

It was amazing how beautiful and gentle the swarm was just hanging on the branch.  They were easy to get into the nuc box and very few were flying around.  Just after we got the bees into the nuc Jason and his wife came walking up the road.  We had a great time talking about bees (in other words they were very polite as I rambled on and on about bees).  After leaving their home, we headed up to the farm for a late-night hive installation.  It was raining, so we parked the truck in the machine shed and tranfered the bees from the nuc into a regular 10-frame hive.

From there we took the hive out to the bee yard, placing it in a freshly mowed temporary location, and stuck a feeder on the front.  It still amazes me how smooth everything went, of course with the exception I got stung on my right forearm....my sleeve road up under the glove and a little girl got me good!