1st swarm!

We picked up our first "solo" swarm on the 19th of May. It was an overcast day and had rained the night before, so it was with great surprise that we actually found a swarm at the address where the swarm was reported. The call came from around the intersection of 12th and Adams Street in Denver.

We greeted the homeowner who was very understanding about the swarm, and even knew the exact tree where the swarm came from!  We explained to her and the neighbors how we were going collect the bees, then got to work.  The bees had swarmed the previous day, and were rained on the night before, so they were not feisty at all.

While we were collecting this swarm, another neighbor approached us and reported a second swarm!  We didn't have the equipment to collect that swarm, so we called another beekeeper friend, who agreed to come pick up the second swarm.  They were about 25 feet up in a tree. (Miss Bee Haven says Jace isn't telling the whole story here...One of the things we were taught in swarm class was to make sure you seal off the bottom of your pant legs. Jace and I have gotten used to our bees in the back yard..which mostly stay up in the air and don't hang around much on the ground. When you are collecting a swarm, and you shake the branch to knock the bees in to the box, you also knock quite a few of them on the ground. While Jace and I were collecting this swarm, I felt what I thought was a few drops of sweat on my leg, except they were running up my leg instead of down. As soon as I thought it, I got stung. I remembered the bit about tucking your pant legs in your socks to prevent the bees from having a party in your pant legs, and I bent down to tuck everything in. There were 3 bees on my shoes and a few more smiling up at me from my socks. I gently brushed them off and tucked my pant legs in to my socks. No sooner had I done that, then I felt another poor bee crawling around on my leg. Jace tried to help me carefully lift my pant leg up so we could set her free but unfortunately she stung me too. There was a small group of people watching this all happen so I stayed calm. I am a little weirded out by anything crawling on me, and I felt bad that the bees stung me because it meant the end of their life. The fear of the sting is worse than the actual sting, unless you are truly allergic (and only 1-2% of the entire population are!). Jace confessed that a bee had crawled up his pant leg as well and stung him.  Miss Bee Haven and Jace will definitely remember to tuck their pants in to their socks next time! )