For anyone who has an interest in honeybees or beekeeping, hopefully you will find this lengthy post interesting, and more than a little comical.
To Bee or Not to Bee?
This year we entered spring with a single honeybee hive after losing our weakest hive at some point during the winter. This is common for beekeepers everywhere, but when you only had two hives to begin with, you are faced with a decision. Do you nurture your one hive or add more?
Since Neil decided he wanted more hives, we had a couple of options. We could take our chances and hope to capture a swarm or two, or we could go online and order a honeybee package. We went with the second option. Read on to see if we made the right decision.
Step One – Order the Bees
Believe it or not, Amazon does not sell honeybees. And that is probably a good thing. But there are reputable companies where you can order honeybees and other apiary supplies. And once you are on the website, you can choose from different types of bees. There are Russian bees, Italian bees, Carniolan bees, and Caucasian bees. Who knew? Since Neil has had positive experiences with Italian honeybees, that is what he ordered. Once they were ordered, Neil received an email confirming his purchase and giving an approximate delivery date. Everything hinges on the weather since you don’t want your bees freezing in transit.
Step Two – Receive the Bees
Imagine being a USPS worker on honeybee delivery day. As it turns out, all the local beekeepers received their honeybees in the mail around the same time. Neil got a phone call one morning stating that the local post office had received his honeybees and he needed to come and pick them up. This just happened to be the same day that a film crew was arriving at Hickory Grove for a 2-day shoot. (More on that in another post.) We had hoped the bees would arrive in time for the shoot, but not just as the crew was arriving. But while the film crew could wait, the bees could not. Neil jumped in his car and headed to the post office. What happened next was a comedy of errors. It was not funny at the time, but now we find it rather humorous.
The postal worker seemed relieved to see Neil. He directed him to drive around to the side of the post office where he would meet him with the bees. He clearly didn’t want to have them inside the building any longer than necessary. (Who could blame him?) The worker was pushing a cart carrying a two small wooden crates strapped together. He told Neil this was his box of bees. Neil thanked the postal worker and put the bees in his car. I know that sounds scary, but even if a honeybee gets loose, it will cling to the outside of the box to protect the queen.
Step Three – Release the Bees
Neil arrived home and quickly donned his bee suit. Since the honeybees have been in the box for a day or two, you want to release them into their new hive as soon as possible. Neil took the top off the empty hive and literally dumped and shook the bees into their new home. (Yup, that’s how you do it!) It was just a moment later, as he was tipping the last of the bees into the hive that he noticed the address sticker on the side of the box — and it wasn’t his name. Neil also realized that he had received not one, but TWO packages of bees!
Well, there is no amount of coaxing you can do to get 24,000 bees back into a box. Neil called the post office to explain what happened. Clearly, the postal worker had been more intent on getting rid of the bees than ensuring they were going to the correct address. At first the Postmaster insisted that Neil must be mistaken. There were no more honeybees on the premises. But then Neil asked, “If you have no other bees, then why as I called for a package pick-up?”
Well, there was no denying that fact, so they went hunting for another buzzing box. Once Neil’s actual box was located (a single box of bees), he wanted to know what they would tell the guy who didn’t get his two boxes of bees. The Postmaster said they could not knowingly give the other party Neil’s bees. That would be a federal crime. It’s one thing to do it by accident, but quite another to misdeliver on purpose.
So Neil returned to the post office to pick up his own honeybees, and after contacting the bee company to help sort out this mess, he was called by the correct owner of bees. They agreed to meet at our house so Neil could hand-deliver his box of bees and further explain what happened. Despite the mix-up, everyone had a good laugh about the crazy series of events. The post office agreed to work with the bee company to compensate the customer for his shortage. Hopefully he has received replacement honeybees by now.
But wait, there’s more!
The Perfect Swarm
The next two days were a blur as the film crew set up, did their filming and B-Roll video, then packed up and left. During the filming, Neil was able to show our guests how he checks on his hives and goes through various beekeeping tasks. He confirmed that all the bees were settling in nicely, but he was anxious to have some free time to really take a good look inside the hives.
None of us were prepared for what happened after the film crew left town.
Neil noticed that the hive that survived the winter was showing signs that it might swarm. We might actually lose a lot of bees if they suddenly decided to leave in search of a new home. Thankfully, he had the foresight to call a mentor friend who agreed to come the next day to help him try to split the hive. Neil was out watering the vegetable garden while waiting for his friend. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a small swarm of bees in our apricot tree! His friend arrived just in time to help him capture the honeybees and place them into a new hive box. The timing was perfect! Now we had four hives. (The photo on the left is the second swarm that was captured.)
A Happy (and Sweet) Ending
Little did we know that over the next few days, that same hive would swarm yet again, and still another swarm — the largest one yet — was in our peach tree several days later. We think this final swarm was wild and did not originate from one of our hives. The biggest problem Neil faced was not having enough hives for all these honeybees! He had to scramble to set up small hive boxes to capture them, then rush to the local hardware store to buy more supplies and quickly build them at home.
(Visit this YouTube link to watch Neil capture the second swarm of the season!)
At this moment, we now have SIX honeybee hives. Three weeks ago we had only one hive. Amazing!
An important lesson was learned this spring: always have at least five or six hive boxes ready to go during swarm season. We were caught completely off guard by the number of swarms and how rapidly they appeared! But thankfully Neil managed to scramble and gather enough supplies to house all of Hickory Grove’s newest residents. These new hives represent a lot more work for Neil, but also plenty of sweet honey for many years to come!