Swarm at UBC Farm

A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon, which is none too shabby. On Saturday I volunteered to give hive tours during the UBC Farm market, which was a real blast. I though I'd be calmly sitting on my butt between tours, but a beekeeper who has a hive on the farm hailed me and asked to help capture a swarm. We grabbed a ladder and some large clippers and because I'd seen our neighbor capture a swarm in a very similar situation I knew exactly what we needed to do and we had it down and in a box in about ten minutes. Would that they were all that easy!!!! The people on the first hive tour were given the unique opportunity to see the bees settling themselves into their new home. Then B loaded up as observation hive with a frame and everyone in the subsequent tours got a close up look at the bees without fear of being stung.

I found this guy wandering in the grass close to the chickens. Just the kind of bug they'd love to chomp down, although the red and black coloration probably warns them it wouldn't taste too good.

Sunshine and loveliness. Curious toddlers with their noses pressed up to the glass in the visible hive, and the sound of roosters asserting their masculinity in the background. Eagles circling, blessing the circles of conversation. The familiar fresh odors of forest and earth overlaid with the aromas of warm bannock and coffee. I am so filled to the brim with love for UBC Farm. The students change from year to year, but the spirit remains hopeful and restorative.

Part 2 of the Calm Beekeeper's Swarm

I received a call at about 3:30 pm that Colleen's swarm had relocated. This time they were low enough to capture with the help of our local mentor Cal. You can see from this photo the scale of the swarm--it is a bit smaller than a basket ball net and somewhat diminished from what it was yesterday. They were in the front yard of a neighbor's house, having traveled north. We've usually seen them travel south, so this was a new situation for us.

The trick was to clip the small branches first so that the bees would be all together in one large clump that C could rehive.

It was awkward getting near the branch because there were hedges all around it. Cal talked C though it all in a soft, gentle voice. You could say he is a beekeeper whisperer and well as a bee whisperer! The trick was using the small handsaw to cut in a backwards motion to gradually cut through the thick branch.


Neighbors stopped to watch and ask questions. An arborist explained to the neighbor that having one final big cut at the end of the branch would be the kindest thing to do to the tree at this point. It's good to have a tree doctor on the scene! You can see that C gave her bee suit to Cal to wear, so she did get a few stings and it seemed that once the bees got the scent of the stings she was a marked woman! Cal doesn't even usually wear gloves, but since this was a bit tricky to get to, the bees did start to get defensive.

This is the branch after the swarm has been cut down. It took a while for the remaining bees to catch the scent of the new hive.

Here's the branch inside two dadant boxes. Once the bees felt secure in the box they started fanning the scent to bring the rest of the bees home.

Once Cal and C got the branch into the hive, they put in as many frames as they could and put a cover on the box, leaving a back entrance for the bees to find their way into the hive. It took about two hours to get them to this point and another two to get them all settled in for the night before we moved them into C's back yard. C and Cal did a great job and having the swarm in such a public place was a good educational opportunity for the neighbors. It was a beautiful swarm.

The Calm Beekeeper's Swarm

It's a muggy, heady day. There are all sorts of sweet blossoms out there. I cut some phacelia from the city hall school garden and put in a vase on our dinner table. I hadn't realized it was so fragrant. The roses are starting to bloom, the mock orange with its intense jasmine perfume and the sweet purple rocket. I gave our small hive a peek just to see if they were getting crowded, but they still have room. Our neighbor's hive decided they needed a more spacious condo. When I returned her phone call she sounded incredibly calm and had the situation under control. When I arrive to take a look she offers me a cup of tea. The bees had swarmed right in front of her (funny how they do that) and landed in a cedar tree in the neighbor's yard to the south, 30 feet in the air. So now what do you do? You phone Cal, the swarm man, get an extra hive box, fill it with a few frames sprinkled with sugar water and put it on the roof of a shed directly under the cedar tree and you wait.

This is a huge swarm. It looks like a warm knitted sweater hanging from the tree. The calm beekeeper went to tell the neighbor he had a swarm in his yard and when I heard laughter I knew everything was going to be okay. C came back smiling holding a nice looking raspberry bush he'd given her. Another neighbor came over to take a look and offered to help as he has had experience with bees in South Africa. J came bearing a gift of sugar water and C sprinkled it on the outside of the hive and closed up the box about 3/4 of the way because in our experience the bees prefer a dark space to move into.



It was a strange day for a swarm being very wet and cool this morning, but the bees saw a window of opportunity and they were right. It's been a dry, sunny evening, even though at one point we did hear a rumble of thunder. C thinks she will leave the box there over night and collect it in the morning. Now that I see from the photos it's a dadant I hope it's big enough for all those bees.



On the way home I see bumble bees scrummaging like mad over the California lilac. I've got to get some of that in my back yard. It must be one of the best bumble bee plants that grows in Vancouver.

Early Swarm

On Sunday (April 11) J and I were just about to do a hive check. I'd just finished lunch and my partner said, "Honey, look out the window, something's happening with the bees." Sure enough, the yard was full of a cloud of bees getting into swarming mode. Thank goodness we were home. I got into my beekeeping suit, my heart thumping away as the adrenaline started to pump into my body. A neighbor across the way started yelling at me to do something. I followed the bees into another neighbor's yard two doors down from mine, but then wouldn't you know it, the bees chose to land in a tree in the irate neighbor's yard. I grabbed a banker's box and a pair of scissors and knocked on his door. I heard vicious barking. My adrenaline went up a notch. I apologized he told me he was allergic to bees. I assured him they were not in stinging mode and I would get them down as soon as possible.

Fortunately his neighbors were helpful and friendly. Fortunately they had a ladder that would reach up to the garage roof I needed to climb up on to get to the bees. Fortunately the adrenaline rush meant that in spite of my fear of heights I got up on that roof and started scooping bees into the box. The Nasanov reflex kicked in immediately and the other bees followed the scented trail. All along the edge of the box, bees had their butts in the air fanning their wings. It was a beautiful sunny day and my hands were shaking. All I could do was wait. I might as well enjoy this, I thought. So I took a deep breath and tried to calm my body in by breathing in the scent of the spruce tree and rest my eyes on the intensely blue sky. There were a hell of a lot of bees. The majority of the hive had swarmed.

Of course all the while I was kicking myself for not opening the hive sooner and adding more space. The weather had been so crappy that it didn't give me much of a window to open the hive. It was almost as if a giant batch of bees matured at the same time--a real surge in the population. As the box began to fill I realized I would need help getting it down from the roof and also I needed I bigger box! I shouted over to P to get J and a big box with a lid. We ended up using a large Rubbermaid tub. I put the cardboard box into that tub, then I used J's secateurs to cut off the spruce branch the bees had landed in. Sometimes the smell of the queen's pheramones rubs off on the branch so I wanted to keep it in the hive just in case.

Luckily we had a couple of extra hive boxes, a bottom and a lid so we could house the swarm. Once they'd settled down we put in a layer of frames. It actually took them a couple of days to settle down. Yesterday we flipped the boxes so the frames are now at the bottom and today I removed the pine branch and put in a pollen patty and a jar of sugar water to boost their wax production. They're all settled at the bottom of the hive now, busy building comb.

In the photos above you can see there is a hole in the front of the brown box. I find it fascinating that that is by far the favorite of the three entrances available to the bees.

Yesterday we did a check of the original hive and knocked off the queen cells. I'll go into more detail about that in another post. For now, enjoy the lovely bumble bee I found resting inside one of my sunny yellow tulips!