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- DSCN9844
Swarm discovered: 9:19am, 6/13/2002. At the MSU apiary near the Lake. - DSCN9846
A closeup of the swarm. - DSCN9848
9:20:49 am, the swarm before being hived. - DSCN9849
9:21 am, Sandie Michalek, my beekeeping technician, starts putting a hive box directly below the swarm. - DSCN9850
9:21am, this includes a hive stand, a bottom board, and a brood box with 10 frames. - DSCN9851
9:22 am, she tried to cut the branch off, thinking that would be easier. But gave up because it was too think to cut. - DSCN9852
DSCN9852 - DSCN9853
DSCN9853 - DSCN9854
9:22:49 am, She shook the brank to let the swarm fall directly into the box. - DSCN9855
9:22:55 am, Most of the bees are now inside the hive box. Bees usually "flow" into the spaces between the frames when shaken down. - DSCN9856
9:23:16 am, another good shake, only a few bees left! - DSCN9857
9:23:27 am, now she tries to break the little branch, which has a few bees on them, just in case the queen is still there. - DSCN9861
9:32:12 am, all bees are in, with the little branch with a few bees also. This colony can now be closed up with the inner cover and out-cover (laying in front). See it only took 12 minutes, and bees just moved into a brand new home! - DSCN0583
A student from MSU called me saying there was a large nest of wasps in her house and one can reach it. After seeing her picture, I told her it was honey bees, but if she really wanted to get rid of them, I could help. I thought it was about 6 ft from the ground and it would be easy since the nest was exposed. All my students decided to join the adventure and learn something about bee removal. Sept 5, 2002. 6:30 pm. - DSCN0585
A closeup of the bee nest. It looked like there would be a good 30,000 workers there (but in the end, my estimate would be about 20,000 max).