Post date: May 12, 2011 1:20:0 PM

First Swarm call of 2011

On 3/23/2011 my father-in-law sent me a text message about a friend of his with a swarm in his yard. I contacted Sam (the home-owner) immediately and got all the details. A couple hours later a brand new swarm of lovely Italian honeybees was removed from a lilac bush and was making itself comfortable in a new 8-frame medium hive body. 

Adrianne drove straight over after work and we visited with Sam and Tricia. They showed us their lovely house. They do custom cabinet work and their large house is fitted with their amazing handiwork. Adri and I went out to eat and then to a Barnes & Noble that was close by to wait for the sun to go down. At 7:20p we returned. There were still a few honeybees flying around so we gave them some more time. Sam & Tricia's two little girls were trying to tell the bees to hurry up and get in their home! It was very cute. The four of us were standing around the hive watching the last of the honeybees return from the flowers to settle in for the night. When no more could be seen flying around we put in the screen to block the entrance and carried the box to the Xterra. We got home, put the X in 4x4 and bumped along back to the apiary where we had 2 cinder blocks already leveled and waiting for a hive. We gently set the hive on the blocks and said "good night" to the honeybees. 

This is the story of how we got our Hive #1!