As if on Cue

Well wouldn't ya know, opportunity knocked again.  Word travels fast once you start keeping bees.  In the two short seasons Pig Pen has added this to his resume, he's had at least a half dozen calls to come fetch a swarm or wild hive.  Always a friend of a friend of friend.  Pretty amazing in that aspect. 

Last night he headed out to get another wild hive.  So you will get to see his fashioned "Bee Vac" after all!  This hive was hunkered down in an old tree, so no limb shaking would do.  Sue, this one's for you!!

Basically, he took a large hive box, drilled the necessary holes to attach a shop vac for the suction and inserted a screen so they don't get sucked into the vacuum itself.  Then he drilled a smaller hole that he inserts a long tube into that actually sucks the bees up with minimal loss.

And for the record, nope...not me taking all these fine pictures.  I have yet to be stung.  I give them a respectful distance.  We get along just fine this way.  :o)

So up the tree he goes to begin the process. 

Not always can you get the bees out if they are in pretty far. 

Occasionally, and if the homeowner allows, there is some cutting involved. 

This tree is old and starting to hollow, which is why the bees chose it as well. 

So Pig Pen did have to make a cut.  The bees were none too happy about this I'd imagine. 

But as you can see, the homeowner and his kids were right there and not one of them got stung! 

Well, except for LLL who was off in the distance!  Go figure!  The one guy who is allergic and not carrying an Epi!  He got stung in the nose.  But he is doing fine.  I told him not to to be sniffing on those bees any more. 

So now we have another hive hopefully settling in out back!

This was the second call Pig Pen received this week.  Earlier in the week, a guy stopped by our house and asked if we were interested in a tree hive located at a nearby Rec Club.  He made arrangements with Pig Pen for the following day to extract the hive.  Well, when they spoke again, they guy informed him that the club burned the hive out instead!  Why???

Most of you know how beneficial bees are to your gardens and crops.  Bees are slowly being killed off -sigh- by "us" and battling disease.  You do not want this to continue to happen!!

From New Agriculturist on the Benefits of Bees:

Forget about honey, pollen and royal jelly. Just think of a world without beans, tomatoes, onions and carrots, not to mention the hundreds of other vegetables, oilseeds and fruits that are dependent upon bees for pollination. And the livestock that are dependent upon bee-pollinated forage plants, such as clover. No human activity or ingenuity could ever replace the work of bees and yet it is largely taken for granted. It is often not realized just how easy it is to help or hinder their effectiveness as crop pollinators nor how much is lost by their loss.


To United States agriculture alone, the annual value of honey bee pollination can be counted in billions of dollars. Bees pollinate about one-sixth of the world's flowering plant species and some 400 of its agricultural plants. Poorly pollinated plants produce fewer, often misshapen, fruits and lower yields of seed with inevitable consequences upon quality, availability and price of food. One of the few farm activities that can actually increase yields, rather than simply protect existing yields from losses, is to manage bees to encourage good pollination.

I encourage you all to find a local beekeeper and have their number handy.  Next time you are at a local Farmers Market, stop at the booth, go online, or contact (believe it or not) animal control.  You never know when a swarm might appear!  And as I mentioned in the comments section on my last post regarding bees, a swarm is generally docile.  You should always use caution regardless.