A cluster of honey bees settled in a maple tree down the street from us, luckily it was only about seven feet up. It was easy to get to using the 5 gallon bucket David had bolted to a pole. I held the bucket and he snipped a couple of small branches and, bingo!, we now have three hives!
We brought them home and I poured the bees into the waxed cardboard nuc I had bought from Brushy Mountain Bees. The bees who did not fall directly into the nuc walked right up and into the front door, attracted to their friends and the two frames of foundation with honey that I took out of Artemis.
With the home owner's permission I left a box with a frame of foundation in it in the tree for the stragglers. I retrieved that one later in the day and placed it on top of the nuc.
You can see how I set them up... chimney flue liners, aluminum tray, nuc box with lots of bees, box with a few bees, aluminum tray (to protect them from the rain, which is back with a vengence). When I have some time this weekend I'm going to open both boxes and see what we have. I also have to go in search of queen cells. My bee teacher said that eliminating queen cells will greatly reduce the chance of my hives swarming.
Great blog Margaret. There is so much in this and i have lot of things to learn here for building my new Bees farm and a honey processing unit. You guys really work hard. evident from the pictures. GOD bless you both.
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