The More, the Merrier

SWARMIN': This afternoon, Christian sent me a video via Facebook messenger. Some bees were on the move several blocks away, and a neighbor who knew us to be beekeepers sent Christian a message asking if he wanted to come and try to catch the swarm.

His answer was an enthusiastic, "Yes!"

We'd already been lucky enough to catch one swarm a couple of weeks ago, but we still had an empty hive, ready for inhabitants.

Christian finished up what he had to do at work, headed home, and assembled his bee catching kit. (In case you're wondering, that was a couple of bee brushes, a large dustpan, a big plastic box with some combs in them, and his beekeeping suit.) Christian and Annabelle hopped into the car and drove over the hill. 

When they arrived, they found the swarm had condensed quite a bit as compared to their more spread-out presence in the video. That was good news. 

Christian began scooping handfuls of bees and moving them toward the combs. The big hope is that the queen was in one of those scoops, so her minions would follow. 

Christian and Annabelle also used the brushes and the dustpan to relocated hundreds of bees.  

Below is a photo of what was left after they moved the vast majority of the swarm.

Naturally, the homeowners were curious about the invasion, and were happy to have them removed. One of the residents was a little boy, about 8 or so. He was super interested in the bees and their removal. I told Annabelle that was probably the most exciting thing that had happened to the kid since the pandemic started. 

We left the box there for a couple of hours so that stragglers could find their way in. When we returned for the box after dinner, all but just a handful of bees were in the box. Hooray!

They're in our yard now. We'll see how they take to the new place. 

Meanwhile, our other captured swarm seems very happy here. The queen is laying eggs, the bees are really active. It's so great to have buzziness back in our lives. 

PLUCKED: Speaking of cheap pandemic entertainment, midday we heard the beep-beep-beep of a big rig backing up on our quiet little dead end. 

We watched the truck and its mechanical arm make short work of plucking a telephone pole clean out of the ground. It was pretty interesting, but doesn't quite make up for the fact we didn't get to go see Rage Against the Machine tonight at the Tacoma Dome. Heavy sigh.