Swarm Captured!

What an exciting afternoon we had yesterday!

Across the street from the school where I work, there's a neighbor that periodically gets swarms of bees in his trees. (FYI: Bees swarm when they get too crowded in their hive. They sense the crowded conditions, and make another queen. This new queen takes half the hive, and swarm - usually on a branch of a tree - until another home can be found.)

Anyway, so when my husband learned that this neighbor gets swarms in his trees sometimes, he asked this guy to call him, so we could come over and rescue the swarm. That's what happened yesterday! This guy called Derek, and we rushed right over with our hive box. This is what we saw: (excuse my photo quality. All I had with me was my phone to take pictures.)

Isn't that cool?!

So the first step? Of course, Derek got in his bee suit.

And put the hive box under the swarm:

Then, he carefully snipped the branch the bees were hanging on:

And lowered it down into the hive:

Success!!

Is that amazing or what?! Then we just put the lid on, and took the box home!

The part that stunned me was how calm the bees were. When they are in that swarmed state, they are very docile. Their only job is to protect the queen (who is in the middle of the swarm.) They don't have any young or honey to protect so they are not aggressive AT ALL. It was incredible.

The other amazing part was how the swarm moved in a fluid state. It was like the whole swarm was one body. It was remarkable!

We won't really know if this was a successful transfer until we open the hive (in a day or two when they're settled in) and see the queen. If there's no queen? The colony will die out. Keep your fingers crossed. I'll keep you posted!

*UPDATE* We have a queen!!!