That Would Be Capitol

This is a bee swarm that took up residence in Jen’s front yard. The second one this week. But this new swarm was luckier than the first because this time the beekeepers were called in to capture them.

The beekeepers analyze the situation.

A crowd gathers.

The beekeeper dons his protective gear and teaches a little about how bees are shipped.

Then he gets down to bees knees.

The box is put into position. Once the queen falls into the box the other bees will follow to protect her.

Ow! Ow! Ouch! Run! Just kidding.

With the queen in the box the other bees gather along the top, slowly making their way inside.

But they’re really slow so they get combed in with a brush.

Here about half the bees are in the box and the other half are on the ground behind the box.

Then its a waiting game while the bees calm down and continue to climb in the box or gather on its edges.

While we wait, their buddies on the ground are scooped up and placed in the box.

Eventually they calm down and are mostly in the box. They don’t all have to be in the box. Some of them are content to hang on to the outside so long as they’re close to the queen. The box was then collected and placed into the back of the beekeepers’ Jeep which was previously prepared by rolling the windows down. Would you drive around with a box full of bees and have the windows rolled up? Of course not, that would be crazy.

Thanks to Jason and Gerard (think that’s right) for teaching us a bit about bees today and for safely taking the bees away to a new hive.

A couple of things I learned:

1. Observation hives sound very cool.
2. I can learn about bees at the Botanical Garden thanks to The Metro Atlanta Beekeepers