Swarm season in Kansas!
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Do you want to catch these? I have some ideas on easy traps
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Yes i just shake them off into a hive.
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Looks like a big swarm. I once put a big swarm in a hive and it was my most productive for a couple of years, It was also my easiest to anger. When I tell the story about how mean they were I always say I got stung 60 times.
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These wild black bees have a tendency to try and nail my shirt on as well Bill.
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This was a mean batch so i gave them two shakes and left since i was not wearing a bee suite. I felt 2 stings as i left. Hopefully the rest of the bees crawl in. By the way the bush wound up being a multiflora rose so i laughed a bit about that. Its on my list now to remove.
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When i got back to the house one of my sisters and my mom was there. My mom laughed pretty big when they found out what i was doing. She said “well noone ever said you don’t have nerve, i’m scared to work those type of bees when im wearing a bee suite”. She laughed even harder when she saw i was wearing shorts. She was not happy when she found out i went through blackberry and multiflora to get the swarm but a swarm will not wait for me. When i see a swarm i decide then to let it go or get them now. I chose to grab that big swarm if possible. There are consequences either way. I expected worse than i got.
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Anyway, keep us up to date on the bees and the chase through the brambles. You’re too healthy to get something interesting to entertain the rest of us!
When I kept numerous colonies, I always had a telescoping apple carton with me, light weight so I could snuggle it under the swarm to prevent the unpleasantness from rough handling or a fall into a waiting hive body.
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Im not as healthy as you might think i just dont ever give in. Believe it or not the bee stings make me feel good in small numbers.
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Stings help me too, arthritis!
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You all are so much braver than I am! I would have run the other direction!!
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Sometimes running just shows good sense. One day when walking through the field i encountered a badger which are known to be fiercly territorial. I didnt run because i was to tired and he knew i wouln’t. Every time i saw that badger many times and for years we had the same deal. Nature instinctly knows about people. Im not saying anything other than that they know some things we do not though im not sure how. My ex had a dog most people were very afraid of and i being tired found the dog in my bed being territorial. I reached over and moved the 85 pounder much to his objection off the bed. I didnt know the dog but knew of his fierce reputation but i didn’t care.
She said i cant believe you got away with that he was going to bite you and i said no he wasnt he knew i wasn’t bluffing. Insects are the same way i respected those bees and was cautious of them but i do not fear them. The slightest thing can set them off like perfume, insect repellant etc. But i know those things. Swarming bees are normally calm because their bellies are full of honey. This was a mean bunch. The coloring of the bees told me what they were and my mind went back to my grandfather who spoke often of these bees he called german blacks. They are a cross of an italian and an ancient wild bee. During swarming is as docile as they get. Given their nature i dont care if they stay or go and either way will be happy…
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I’ve run into dry swarms occasionally, out of the hive for 3-4 days, hungry and mean. A thorough soaking of 1-1 sugar water and then they are docile again. I got to taking a spray bottle every time I went out to get swarms, so much easier.
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got my first package of bees last week, queen was dead but they sent a new one 2 days later, gonna run out and check today to make sure she got out of cage ok. Hoping to get a swarm or two this summer, but we dont really have wild bees around here so not sure if Ill have any luck at all…
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I have used a little squirt bottle with sugar water also, it always made them more calm. The only time I got stung catching a swarm was when a guy called me right at dark about a swarm at the church parking lot. By the time I got there it was pitch black. I had a light a had to use it some just to see what I was doing but it seemed to confuse the bees and piss certain ones off.
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I got a call from a neighbor to come and capture a swarm. By the time we got there there were only a few bees left. I was pleased with our response time and I think just think too much time had elapsed before we got there.
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Its hard to see by the photo but the swarm was very large and as mean as they get. Years ago i crossed carniolan with buckfast and italian which i crossed accidently with german blacks. I believe thats what these are is some of those wild types that escaped from my early 20s. I used carniolan to give them more cold tolerance, italian to produce more honey. I tried using z caucasian hive of black bees but mine killed them and took over their hive. I was using buckfast at the time for honey production. The old men commented the wild bees were coming from my house and repopulating the old hive trees and abandon buildings. My mom called my cross robber bees because they prefer stealing to working more so than others. These are not really my bees anymore they have been wild for decades now and i have no more plans to do additional crosses. They are immune to foulbrood and other diseases that killed the old native bees. I found italians from calvert apiaries in alabama at the time immune to foulbrood and resistant to mites. Suspect these just keep breeding and developing better strains.
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I started with Buckfast and they were hot when they would come from Texas as queens. If they ever requeened themselves they were almost uncontrollable. Wondered about that till I saw the map of Africanization, they were 50% African till the queen was replaced and then they became all African. They would meet you as you got out of your truck and chase you back to it and then keep trying till you got them all out of the cab. Vicious little bas****s.
If I get queens now, they come from Koehnens in Cali.
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These are not the type that attack you half a mile away @Chikn. I’ve certainly had those type that mean. Called the head bee man once for the state when i caught a large swarm that took over 10 medium honey supers i had stacked up after processing the honey from them. I told the man i believed they were african and he chuckled and said no sir african are not that mean they attack you as a group near their hive . He said those are just mean old european bees. They followed me home about half mile away waiting for me to come out of the house. The wild german black bees as my grandfather called them make buckfast look like sweethearts and as you mentioned second generation buckfast are no angels.
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Thanks for the great pictures and thread, @clarkinks. Did you end up capturing the swarm or did they move on?
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