April 16, 2009

  •  Yesterday Tamara's friend Anslie came over for a few hours. Her parents had a meeting to attned, but then it got canceled. We decided to still have her come though so we wouldn't have 2 disappointed girls!

     They had lots of fun playing with horses and on the trampoline......

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    ....and then had root beer floats to end the day.
     They were toasting to friendship!!

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     In the afternoon, there was a knock at the door and it was a guy letting me know that he and a friend were going to be taking the swarm of honey bees around 6. I was disappointed because that is the time we had to leave for church. Well, we always leave earlier than we would have to, so technically we could wait to leave till 6:15 and still get there in time. So we just had to wait and see what time they came. Lucky for us, they showed up at 5:55 and so we got to watch for a good 15 minutes.

    They set up a hive under the tree.....
      He also warned us that they could be Africanized bees. They are a breed that is coming from South Africa and are mostly found in TX, NM, and CA. They are more aggressive! If these were Africanized bees, he said we would find out fast and would need to run for the house as fast as we can!!  We still stood close and watched....maybe we are naive? Thankfully, they weren't Africanized!!

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    Getting the smoker ready.

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    Smoking the bees....that calms them down and reduces stinging.

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    Before they even smoked them, some of the bees were already going down into the hive. They smell the honey and are attracted, then they send word up to the other workers, who follow them down to the hive. Once the queen goes down to the hive box, all the rest will follow, but that could take awhile, so smoking helped move the process on quicker.

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    That was alot of bees!! The guy who was getting them was so thrilled!!

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    Think maybe we should have charged for them?  I wonder what they were worth??

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     Till we left for church, they already had the queen in the box. I don't know how much longer it took, but they were gone when we got home!
     It was a very interesting process to watch and I am so glad we got to be there to see it!

     

Comments (5)

  • With the population of bees on the decline, it's so neat that you were able to find someone who will utilize those wonderful creatures!  Interesting pics!

  • That looks interesting!

  • The bee process would be interesting to watch.  That sure is a LOT of bees though!  WOW! 

  • that must have been very interesting to watch but I dont think I would have gotten too close!!

    Did Tamara grow up over night?  She looks so mature in these pics!!:)

  • I'm glad bees make honey, but right now I'm mad at them. Zach got stung this evening and had a very bad reaction. I'm scared to think what would happen the next time he got stung! If only they wouldn't sting humans, right? But I'm glad those bees are being put to good use! :)

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