# Went to Home Depot this morning.



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

The phone rings at 5:35 AM this morning. Fellow says he works for the local Home Depot and they have a swarm of honey bees out front can I come get them.
Give me an hour to dress gather the equipment and get there. He tells me they are right out front of the main door in a 5 foot pear tree. 
I get therr and they have a barrier of carts and caution tape around the bees. 
I have an gathering of about 15 empolyees watching and asking questions. 
I sat out my catch box with ten frames of drawn comb in it, set another empty hive body above it. Take the normal pictures (not up loaded yet) look at the branch I have been told I can cut if I wish. 
I push it down about 6 inches, so it is a little inside the upper catch box and give it a bit of a shake. 98% of the bees land on the top bars, I cover them with a screened inter cover I have made for just this type of event. The stragglers start collecting on the screen. when all that seem to under stand mama was in the box I put the outer cover on and tied it down with a ratchet strap loaded it in the truck. Took about 15 miniutes to hive the swarm took about 45 miniutes to answer all the questions. No fancy white bee suit, no helmit and veil, no smoke and no stings. I feel that I showed that people do not need to fear the tiny honey bee as the story of my feat will spread. :dance:He only wore a T shirt, Jeans and a base ball hat, said good morning to that cluster of bees took their picture a couple of times and shook them into the box. Even though he had several buzzing around and crawling on him he answered everybodys questions. 

 Al


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## darbyfamily (Mar 16, 2005)

Awesome story!!! cant wait to see pictures


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

Sweet...was it a good size swarm? The last two calls I have had have been small queenless swarms!! Not sure what it means, but it has me concerned.

I use a beevac on most swarms now as long as they are near power....


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## Mike in Ohio (Oct 29, 2002)

Why can't I get calls like that?!!! The one yesterday was for a small ("size of her fist") swarm an hour+ drive away - told her it was too far away. The one before that was a cutout _ I don't do them.

Sigh....


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Here are the 2 pictures I took yesterday.



















This is a swarm I got last Wednesday. I found it strange they were on the ground. There were some medium sizes cedar trees near by and some huge old oaks too. I found the queen and used a queen catcher to get her then place her catcher and all in the hive. I released her when I got to the bee yard.










Amazing thing is with the right timing I could have gotten a swarm Monday afternoon. I was visiting in the hospital and had the cell turned off. When I went out side I had a message about a swarm. I called the guy who told me he had a friend of mine there getting them.
Then as I was placeing the Home Depot swarm I got a call from a lady who had a swarm but they flew off before I could get back home to get a new hive set up.

Seems to be swarming time in this area of Michigan. It is a month behind by our records. Last year we had gotten 14 swarms by July 1st. This year just one before July 1st. 

Doing a removal this after noon from a condo.

 Al


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## no1cowboy (May 2, 2004)

sugarbush said:


> Sweet...was it a good size swarm? The last two calls I have had have been small queenless swarms!! Not sure what it means, but it has me concerned.....


I too just plucked a little tennis ball sized bunch off a branch that was queenless and had a 2"x2" hunk of comb with honey in it!


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

Just visiting here...know nothing about bees, but what a cool thread!


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## Beltane (Nov 27, 2005)

That is sooo cool! You're pictures are great!


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Thank you for the nice comments. The Home Depot swarm we looked at last week. They are doing fine and got the second deep put on them.
The swarm pictured on the ground are making queen cells despite needing to draw out 2 more frames of foundation and the queen doing a good job of laying. 
Debateing with my self as to wheather I should use one of my push in cages and trap the queen on a frame and make a nuc with her. I know I need to act soon.

 Al


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## savinggrace (Oct 27, 2005)

Another visitor here...what a neat story!


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## thaiblue12 (Feb 14, 2007)

I was just looking in the bee section to see if there was info about the current state of bees. Good for Hagen Das.
If I would have seen that in the tree I would have run the other way! Never been stung by a bee but quite a few times by evil wasps. 
You are a brave man who knows his bees, cool story.


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