The bees got off to a late start, but boy did they get going when the weather improved! Hives have been undergoing population explosions in June. Even newly established hives were becoming overcrowded if their owners were slow to add extra supers (boxes of comb). Overcrowded hives will soon swarm, and there have been lots of swarms.
Last month, Penobscot County Beekeepers Association set up our local swarm team to collect swarms and train new beekeepers how to do so. We have been called to collect swarms all over the region. In collecting those swarms, we are not only providing those bees with safe new homes but also avoiding the situations where bees move into the walls or fixtures of people’s homes.
Hives out on the blueberry barrens also have been swarming, and I have been fortunate to have permission to go out onto the Cherryfield food barrens to collect swarms. On warm sunny days, some of the many thousands of hives would swarm and hang in some of the small pine trees used as wind breaks. As luck would have it, while deep into these remote barrens, my old truck decided that this was the perfect place for its fuel line to rupture. I really wish I hadn’t filled the tank with gas on the way out there!
Fortunately, by some miracle, I had cellphone reception, and even more fortuitously, I have one of the best friends anyone could have. Peter Nason, who also is a business partner of mine, and his wife, Stacey, gave up their Sunday afternoon, and they drove to pick up a large trailer and then drove 70 miles out to the barrens to my rescue. Knowing it would be impossible to describe where on the barrens I was, I walked the five miles back to Route 9 so they would find me. I can confirm how inappropriate a full bee suit and boots are as hiking gear in 80 degree heat, and I had the blisters to prove it!
We drove back in to load up my stricken truck. The trip was not, however, a complete bust. I had already collected four swarms before the fuel line broke, and on the way back out, Peter and Stacey watched as I picked up another two!
As we approach the end of June, the bees are being trucked out of the blueberry barrens, and the job of rescuing those left behind begins. I have written in this column of my swarm traps at Dysart’s truck stop and restaurant, where my traps fill up with bees as the drivers stop for a bite to eat and bees escape from under the nets.
When the truck pulls away, bees are left stranded. Again, I can report that those traps are filling up, and I have had to empty them on a number of occasions.
There is a trick to re-housing these homeless and queenless, stranded bees. They need a queen and a hive to move into, but any hive will defend itself against intruders.
Fortunately at this time of year when nectar is flowing ( we call this the honeyflow), bees are much less on their guard. However, to add so many bees to a new hive, I use what is called “the newspaper method.” The recipient hive that has a queen has its cover removed and replaced with a sheet of newspaper. An extra box full of combs is then placed on top of the paper, and the new homeless and queenless bees are placed into that top box. The lid is then placed on top. Over the next two days, the new bees and recipient hive bees will slowly eat away the newspaper. As they start to make holes in the paper, the scents of the two groups mixes. As more holes are made in the paper, more scent flows between the groups. By the time the bees are passing freely between the boxes, the two groups scents are so well-mixed that they accept each other as sisters. The stranded bees have a home and a queen.
As the clover is blooming, we should be entering one of the biggest honey flows of the year. I’ll be hoping to have some honey to harvest soon.
This coming weekend will be exciting as Penobscot County Beekeepers is having an open hive meeting at my house in Hampden. We will open several of my hives and see how those stranded bees are settling in. These events are a great learning experience for everyone.
Peter Cowin, aka The Bee Whisperer, is President of the Penobscot County Beekeepers Association. His activities include honey production, pollination services, beekeeping lessons, sales of bees and bee equipment and the removal of feral bee hives from homes and other structures. Check out “The Bee Whisperer” on Facebook, email petercowin@tds.net or call 299-6948