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It's busy so more items to update.
I purchased some more Nucs and picked those up and got them into the yards Monday.
The "mean bees" seem to be a little nicer...not nice, but nicer since my treatment with formic pro. It's nasty stuff. I'm still watching and trying to figure out what to do with those hives.
I got a swarm Friday that was about 25 feet up a tree. It was pretty sketchy and I had to climb a ladder that wasn't quite tall enough, hand saw the limb, finish breaking it off without shaking the bees off the branch and carry them down the ladder to shake them into the box. All was going to plan, until the branch broke loose...and the ladder slipped and I was standing on a ladder that had 1 leg hanging on 1 branch, and my right arm was holding a branch with 15-20k bees. After pondering my options I decided to risk letting them ride to the ground and land on me if I lawn-darted myself onto the concrete. It was near a post office and a small crowd gathered and was videoing the event. The ladder wiggled a lot, but I managed to get to the ground without the ladder kicking out and shook them into a box without incident. Only me and the person who does my laundry know how close that was to disaster. Someone sent me a video of that, and while it's not perfect, my girls are making a "dumb ways to die" tik tak from that video. appropriate.
Last night, i got a call about 7:15. I was half an hour away but there was a large swarm in a tree at a rental property with a person allergic to bees living there. I hauled ass(the total speed limit officer) and got home, gathered a box and Mrs Iowanian and went to town to get them.
This closing chapter is where you wish there was a video....
It turned out they were 12-14' in the air, not 6-7'....it was close to dark. They were in a maple tree, so I was able to get a branch, pull it down, grab a higher branch, pull it down repeat. The plan was to grab the branch with the bees, cut it off and then do what I do. The plan worked great, right up until I had grabbed the final branch below the one with the bees and it broke off, sling shotting the branch and shaking off a large amount of bees into the air. I wasn't in a suit and I'd say it would be fair to suggest that 500-1000 landed on me. They weren't happy and I ended up getting 10-15 stings on my forehead and forearms and legs. I'll confess, I didn't keep my cool on that and danced around like a girl afraid of a snake. It could have been a lot worse.
After that, I put on my suit, had the Mrs put on a suit and went through the process again, cut the branch and shook a huge swarm into a box and took it to the quarantine yard just before dark.
I'm not sure of the total number I have now, but we're nearing 30 for sure. I do have honey supers on 4-5 hives and will add more later in the week. We're making honey now boys and girls.
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