Catching a Wild Bee Swarm

[Johnny-Max]

How to Catch a Swarm of Bees

[goatsandpros]

Too bad, UTube was not around when my dad was alive.  The story goes that he found a swarm of bees and he needed to replenish one of his hives so he told my mother to get a large paper bag and hold it underneath the bee swarm and he would use a baseball bat to knock the swarm into the paper bag.  When he did the bees took after him trying to sting him and he had to run to try to get away.  I was amazed at this video.  I have been stung by wild bees when I got too near their hive in the hollow of a tree. I have lots of wild bees where I live now and they are all so sweet and gentle.  The only time I have been stung was when I was grabbing a cloth in a water bucket outdoors and didn't check.  A bee stung me as it was accessing the moisture in the floating cloth.  I have seen the wild bees here feeding off native wild grass seed heads that have extremely tiny flowers.  So small I can't see them.  They were also working the tiny little flowers on pigweed this year. 

I am eager to hear how Johnny-Max's bee project turns out. 

[Johnny-Max]

My bees are doing well, I will split the hive next year and buy more. I am going to sow yellow sweet clover all down the country roads and that should give me lots more honey and beautify the road too.

[cave dweller]

The story goes that he found a swarm of bees and he needed to replenish one of his hives so he told my mother to get a large paper bag and hold it underneath the bee swarm and he would use a baseball bat to knock the swarm into the paper bag. 

 

And your mother went along with this?

[goatsandpros]

Yep, my mother was innocent about bees, but she tried to correct him in other matters.  He always completely ignored her.  He should not have though because when broom weed invaded his most cleared pasture land for cattle and starving his cattle, he ignored my mother's advice to repair the front pasture fencing enough to put in goats and sheep.  Instead he followed the local county extension agent recommending he spray with a safe pesticide, later known as agent orange.  He was dead 7 years later with prostate cancer.  Luckily, my mother who drove the pickup truck as he sat on the back with the sprayer, did not get cancer.

But off topic for those planning on pasture lands in their homestead there's something I have noticed over the years.  I read a book where the author, Joseph A Cocannouer, in "Weeds:  Guardians of the Soil" said nature fixes top soil deficiency with weeds, i.e., the weed that spontaneously appears brings up in quantity the missing topsoil mineral.  I do know that weeds change from year to year.  I have seen a weed seemingly take over all areas one year and not be there the next year.  So I now just leave my "weeds" alone hoping that they are fixing a soil deficiency.  I do try to eliminate weeds I know are poisonous although my goats won't touch the two weeds abounding here the last few years, i.e., bitter weed and silver leaf nightshade. 

[cave dweller]

Looks like he made a makeshift queen excluder by propping the lid just enough for the workers to get out.

[BeerDaddy]

I have not been on for awhile, but i am going to ask for help and see what happens.

I have built two hives, a vertical top bar hive with twenty bars total "Warre Top Bar" and a hortizontal top bar hive "Tanzanian Top Bar" with 28 bars total.

I am in need of bee swarms to fill both hives, i have paid my registration fee with the Texas Apiary Inspection Service (TAIS) and will be getting my Honey Bee Removal License certificate soon, so i am legal to remove swarms as long as i do not charge for bee removal. Otherwise that would put me in the Pest Control Business and i do not want to do that because it would require more certifications and fees than i care to do at this time.

I have contacted the local police, fire and water departments so that when they get a call about bee swarms, i can then go and remove the swarms at no cost, but so far i have gotten no calls.

So HELP, anyone with bee swarms and the ability ship them will be awarded with a FREE CUSTOM Tanzanian Top Bar hive and i will pay for shipping.

I will post pictures of both of my hives with custom steel hive stands tomorrow.

Any and all suggestions and comments are welcome and helpful! 

[BeerDaddy]

[BeerDaddy]

The Warre Top Bar Hive from the inside.

Link to the history of the Warre Top Bar Hive and plans on how to build it, my cost was $25 using salvage baby bed parts, salvage metal from a county bridge rebuild at the local golf park, and the sides and lid salvage from a old barn.
http://www.warre.biobees.com/

[BeerDaddy]

Inside of the Tanzanian Top Bar Hive, my cost was about $50 for this hive, with most of it coming from Montgomery County Recycle Center, so check with your local county recycle processing center, and get to know the men working there on a personal level, you will be able to get just about anything you need for homesteading and beer brewing!

[BeerDaddy]

On both hives the top bars are the cross bars you see in the pictures for both hives, you melt a line of bees wax on the bottom of the bars and the bee's build the comb on the bar vertically with NO attachment to the sides of the hive.

Both hives require a small degree of woodworking and will take about 5 days to build with average wood working skills.

Very simple compared to the Langstron hive and Dadant frame type of designs.

One note, if you are using wax foundation from commercial bee suppliers, get rid of it, it is contaminated with bee mite incesticide, no matter where you get it, the worlds commercial bee wax foundation is badly contaminated and will cause chalkbrood and other problems in your hives.

Plus, the standard cell size of commercial wax foundation is too large and helps bee mite infestations, go back to letting the bees build the cells size that they need, called natural cell size comb, no space for mite's to grow with the brood!

[BeerDaddy]

All hives were painted both inside and outside with 250 deg F melt bee's wax, and then rub on the inside with Lemon Grass Extract, which has the same smell to a bee as the hormones that a queen bee puts out.

This makes the bees feel more at home when you first introduce them to the hive.

So, i think i am ready, i have been around bee keepers all my life, but have never by myself kept them!

I am very excited and my garden will do much better as far as total production!

[BeerDaddy]

Now, how to get them to the Upper Medina River ranch when society fails this year......

Yea, i know, i'm nuts, off my rocker, my cheese has slid off my cracker, The Banks will never fail, Home Prices will always rise, The Government wants the best for every citizen, yaada yaada yaada.....etc...etc....



 

[BeerDaddy]

Dang Johnny-Max, over 600 peeks and lookie see's to your thread on bee's, whats your secret, good information and you wash your pits daily!

 

[Johnny-Max]

BeerDaddy, I have looked into making a hive like yours, but I went with the standard boxes, because I was thinking I need a queen excluder to keep the queen from getting to the upper boxes and laying eggs in them too. Am I thinking wrong? How do you keep larva from getting in the honey you want to harvest?