Aldermoor Farm

We are packing our bags again getting ready to travel in the morning to our next farm. We are becoming very good packers, I must say! I am reflecting on the past two weeks at Aldermoor Farm thinking about what we’ve learned and how we’ve grown.

 The thing that stands out to both Lucas and I the most is one special day when Dave(the farm owner) got a call about a swarm of Bees that needed to be rescued. He asked us if we would come along to help. This is something I have read about and we’ve both seen in a documentary about Bees. Swarms are great for Bee Keepers and people who want to become Bee Keepers because a swarm of Bees is trying to decide where their new home is going to be. With some work and a little luck we can coax them into a hive we want them to make their new home. It’s also great to capture a swarm because they aren’t always in the most convenient place for the property owner. This particular swarm was in someone’s front yard that is allergic. We packed up our bee gear and headed on over. Following are the pictures of the process we had to follow for a successful transfer.

 Lucas & Dave geared up & ready to go

Dave gently cut down the branch that the Bees were swarming around

He then gave the branch a good shake to try to get the bees to fall into the basket. It's most important to capture the Queen Bee.

He quickly turnes the basket over so they will crawl inside. Once inside we wraped the basket up in the sheet with the bees inside to take them home.

Once they are home you then have to try to find the Queen Bee and get her into the bee box so that the other bees will follow. This ended up being tricky & the Queen wasn't being very coroperative.

I believe I’ve said this before but Lucas and I both really want bees in the future so any experience we get with them on our travels is only going to help us to be successful bee keepers. After this experience we both feel we have gained the knowledge and confidence to collect our own swarm.

I think I look really goofy in a bee suite