And About the Neighbors.......

The house next door to me has been on the market and vacant for about a year.  Other houses in my area of Atlanta sell the minute they are put on the MLS, but not this one.  It's a really pretty house, but needs updating and has an odd floor plan that doesn't work well for children - at least that's why the realtor told me it has taken so long to sell.

I'm currently renovating my kitchen and since my house is very tiny, I've moved to the finished attic to live for the forever number of weeks it is taking to finish the job.  So a few days ago, I was sitting on my upstairs bed, talking to my friend Gina on the phone, and gazing out the window at the roof peak at the side of my house.  As I am watching the exterior of the house next door, I realized I was looking at what may be honey bees flying in and out above a second floor dryer vent.

The dryer vent looks like it is on the second floor and as you can see is rather high up since the house has a basement, a first floor and then the dryer vent.

I don't have a powerful enough zoom on my camera to get a clear picture of the insects flying in and out, but they do act like honey bees.















When we were little my Daddy used to say a poem to us:

"Daddy!"
"Whatcha' want?"
"I see a bear..."
"Big bear or a little bear?"
"Little biddy bear."
"Eat grass and watch him"
"Daddy!"
"Whatcha' want?"
"I see a bear..."
"Big bear or a little bear?"
"GREAT BIG BEAR!"
"Run for your life, run for your life!!!!!"

I keep thinking about this as I watch the bees flying in and out of the hole entry above the dryer vent.  Do I eat grass and watch 'em or do I call the realtor and tell her the news.  You can see the hole entry above and to the left of the center of the dryer vent.

I have tried to photograph the insects with both my phone and my camera but neither have the necessary zoom capacity.

So a couple of days ago, I called the realtor.  I told her I thought there might be honey bees living above the dryer vent.  I told her that there are five beekeepers within a block of my house and although I thought they were honey bees, they were not likely to be my honey bees since bees when they swarm to a new home, generally go at least a mile away if they can.  I gave her the names and numbers of three master beekeepers I know who do bee removals.  I also offered my phone number for the owner (whom I don't know - the house was rented when I moved in next door) in case he had questions.  I hung up relieved but still a little wary.

Finally this morning I decided to take a pair of binoculars upstairs and look out of the window.  I think these might NOT be honey bees but rather yellow jackets.  One view through the binoculars looked like their bodies were more yellow than orange and more pointed at the end than the bee.  I am giving you a blurry photo which is the best I can do so you can see what YOU think!

When I talked to the realtor, she told me the house was pending contract, waiting on the inspection and the loan.  She commented that the inspection had already happened and the inspector did not notice the insect activity.

At least it has me thinking about the new neighbors and I will certainly take them honey when they move in and possibly (as one of my friends suggested) my Canadian honey buttermilk rolls!

Bill Owens Speaks to the Metro Bee Club

Last Wednesday, Bill Owens, Georgia's only Master Craftsman Beekeeper (the highest rank you can attain) spoke to our club about his bee removal business. Bill is a great communicator and an entertaining speaker. I enjoyed his talk a lot, although I will not, being constructionally challenged to the max, be doing bee removals from structures.

Bill talked about the importance of customer relations - a job at which I am sure he is spectacular - and the importance of educating the public about the difference between bees and hornets. One thing he said that surprised me is that it is an easier removal if the cutting into the structure takes place inside the house rather than outside. He said bees in the house are much more easily moved into a container than those outside who seem much more upset by the process.

He shared a list of the tools and equipment he carries to a hive removal. He doesn't list it but he also has in his kit a cookie sheet with a long handle attached. He uses that to slide under a mass of bees in narrow spaces!

Bill stayed afterward to answer questions about what's going on in the bee yard. Interestingly he spoke about feeding the bees. Bill doesn't use any chemicals in his 60 or so hives, and he rarely feeds the bees. He said spring feeding is stimulative feeding and who are we to determine when the hive needs to be at its peak. So he sees no point in taking the risk of stimulating the hive to grow rapidly and then finding out that it was wrong timing.

If he feeds a hive going into winter, then something is wrong or the hive would have enough stores. So he works for healthy hives and not for hives that need his assistance through sugar syrup.

I Captured a Swarm!

Cindy Bee (Ga Beekeeper of the Year 2006) keeps a swarm catcher list. I never got a call last year but today I did!

I was driving to work, feeling a little down because I only had appointments at 9 and 10 this morning and then nothing else until late this afternoon. As I pulled into the parking lot, my cell rang and it was Cindy - she had a swarm for me in an office complex parking lot near my house.

I called the woman who reported the swarm and told her I couldn't get there until 11:30, but I would be there then. Then I went to work and hoped, hoped, hoped the bees would still be there at 11:30. The bees had first been spotted last night, so I'm sure they were about ready to move on.

At 11 I raced home, grabbed my pruning shears (she said they were in a small tree), a large cardboard box, a sheet, some tape, my bee brush, my gloves, two bandanas (to keep my helmet from slipping over my eyes!) and then found that my beesuit was wet in the washing machine. I threw it in the dryer for a few minutes while I packed the car.

It was raining when I arrived in my still-damp beesuit. But the bees were the easiest to get in the world. They were a small swarm on a drooping branch on a tree. Because of the rain a number of bees were also clustered on the juniper bushes below.

Cindy told me to put a sheet under the cardboard box and then shake the bees in. I tried to put the sheet on the tops of the juniper bushes, but it was difficult. The box I set right under the bees. I had to work around parked cars and these ^$^#^^%$ juniper bushes.

I shook the swarm from the four different branches on which it was located into the box and then cut some of the juniper out from the area below and shook those bees into the box. I waited about 45 minutes for the bees to find the box. Several put their rear ends up and started the nasonov dance so I felt pretty sure the queen was in the box.

The bees kept me company in the car and were all over the back window. When I popped the back of the car and took out the box, I moved really slowly so that those loose bees might feel inclined to come along.

Cindy had told me to take an empty hive body and set it over the hive body full of frames in which the new bees would live. That would serve as a funnel for the bees to get them on top of the frames in the box below.

I turn into a complete nervous wreck doing something like this, so bees were not only in the hive box funnel but in a pile on the deck in front of the box. For the life of me, I don't know how I could miss such a big target, but I did. I was afraid the queen might be in the clump on the deck so I slid those onto a piece of cardboard and dumped them into the box.

I hope I didn't injure the queen in my awkward transfer from box to hive, but it is accomplished and the bees are orienting and I'm happy.

Josie, the lady who reported the swarm, was kind enough to take pictures of the removal. She got stung in the process. I hated that - bees were swarming all over me and I didn't get stung even once, so I felt bad for her.

Great day not to be busy at work! I hope these girls are happy in their new box (the one I had set out for a swarm lure).