EXPANDING THE BEE'S

We are learning that bee keeping can be very interesting!!!

A couple of weeks ago Mickey got a phone call saying a man had a swarm of bees on a wheelbarrow that he wanted someone to come and get because they had attacked the ranchers dog.

When Mickey arrived this is what he found. Now us not being either farmers or ranchers this was not exactly what he was expecting the wheelbarrow to look like!!!

The swarm is lodged between the wheel and the fender on this red side.

Here is an enlarged view. Usually the swarm can be captured by shaking the object they are clinging to but in this case, because of the way they were lodged between the wheel & fender, the only way to remove them was to reach in and push them out with your hand. Of course he was suited up with gloves & veil.

After safety placing the bees in the nuke (a smaller bee hive with only 5 frames in it) and removing his gloves & veil he was stung once on the chin and another bee flew into his ear, but thankfully did not sting Mickey and he was able to get it out.

SO... with a new swarm of bees Mickey has to build 4 medium supers.

Each super contains 8 of these frames. This is to make room for extractable honey.

Mickey's original bee hive he purchased in 2008 was expanded to 2 hives in 2009 and is now expanded to 4 hives. His intention is to only maintain 4 hives from this point forward.