Just Curious
Well-known member
A funny thing happened to me on the way out to my pasture this morning... I ran into a swarm of honey bees.
The little critters weren't lost, they belonged to my neighbor who raises them commercially. This rebellious little band of about 20,000 strong had found my pasture to be a bit greener I guess.
I called the owner and while he was on his way over, I trimmed all of the side branches to the thornapple tree and cut the extended portion of the limb that they were attached to off so that he could use it as a handle. I set up my ladder and when he got there, he climbed the ladder and grabbed the branch's handle, while I severed the lower part of the branch. Now he had the whole swarm attached to the branch in his hand. At least for a moment...
As he climbed down the ladder, he stepped off the eighth rung of a nine rung ladder... When he hit the ground the bees went flying... Literally and physically.. Bees were everywhere.. I have never seen so many bees... Funny thing was that they were not all that upset..
Most of the bees were on still on the ground... Disoriented, a little bruised, but still buzzing along! The owner walked over and we stood over the swarm looking for the queen... Now I didn't know what I was looking for but I acted like I did and after a few minutes this guy found the queen!!! I mean there must have been still 15,000 right there on the ground and he picks her out... To me it was like he had found the needle in the haystack...
The owner, holding the queen by her little legs, pulls out a set of nail clippers and trimmed her wings so she could fly off again and throws her into a cage covered with a fine messed wire.
What happened next was unbelievable... After about five minutes of standing there talking about bees, I looked down and was amazed by what I saw... Most of the bees were in lines heading toward the cage which was about three feet away... Somewhere along the way, the word was put out and most of the colony knew where that queen was and were on their way there! Like lemmings heading to the sea!
After about an hour and a half most of the 20,000 bees wre in the cage huddled around their queen...
What a communication system and what loyalty they have...
What we as a society could learn from the bees...
The little critters weren't lost, they belonged to my neighbor who raises them commercially. This rebellious little band of about 20,000 strong had found my pasture to be a bit greener I guess.
I called the owner and while he was on his way over, I trimmed all of the side branches to the thornapple tree and cut the extended portion of the limb that they were attached to off so that he could use it as a handle. I set up my ladder and when he got there, he climbed the ladder and grabbed the branch's handle, while I severed the lower part of the branch. Now he had the whole swarm attached to the branch in his hand. At least for a moment...
As he climbed down the ladder, he stepped off the eighth rung of a nine rung ladder... When he hit the ground the bees went flying... Literally and physically.. Bees were everywhere.. I have never seen so many bees... Funny thing was that they were not all that upset..
Most of the bees were on still on the ground... Disoriented, a little bruised, but still buzzing along! The owner walked over and we stood over the swarm looking for the queen... Now I didn't know what I was looking for but I acted like I did and after a few minutes this guy found the queen!!! I mean there must have been still 15,000 right there on the ground and he picks her out... To me it was like he had found the needle in the haystack...
The owner, holding the queen by her little legs, pulls out a set of nail clippers and trimmed her wings so she could fly off again and throws her into a cage covered with a fine messed wire.
What happened next was unbelievable... After about five minutes of standing there talking about bees, I looked down and was amazed by what I saw... Most of the bees were in lines heading toward the cage which was about three feet away... Somewhere along the way, the word was put out and most of the colony knew where that queen was and were on their way there! Like lemmings heading to the sea!
After about an hour and a half most of the 20,000 bees wre in the cage huddled around their queen...
What a communication system and what loyalty they have...
What we as a society could learn from the bees...
The only exerience I have with honey bees is when they invaded the basement of the house I was living in - yes, I lived in the basement - and swarmed when I accidentally disturbed them, not knowing they had moved in. :shock:
