Well, Tuesday - just after I sent the email to Roger and Richard, we had a wonderful surprise event occur at Grass Lake Sanctuary!
It was a volunteer work evening in preparation for a wedding occurring there the following weekend. I was no sooner engaged in my task of flower plantings, when a fellow pulled up in his car along the lane and told me there was a swarm spotted along a path by one of the volunteers. (I had put out the word a few weeks ago to keep an eye out for swarms and to notify me ASAP if anyone should see one – the chances of this happening – I did not know, but followed the impulse just the same). Upon receiving this message I called the fellow, Tom, who was still standing with the swarm, and asked him some questions. I was wondering if it might be a false alarm. Yet what he described sure sounded like the real thing!
I tried to contain my excitement as I got in my car and drove over to where Tom was - which, interestingly, was maybe 100 yards from where I had placed the new hive nestled in the tree line described in my earlier post.
The whole thing couldn't have been easier.
The swarm was in a small Autumn Olive sapling just 2-3 feet above ground. We were able to carry the top bar hive over and place it under the swarm. I slowed down, tried to communicate with the bees - regarding our intention, and they seemed to be on board with the plan. I was able to clip away a few of the branches leaving one remaining branch to cut which held the swarm.
I Paused again - they seemed ready - perhaps more so than I was, and "snip"! There I was holding the swarm on the small branch! It was beautiful!
It took some time again to feel comfortable with the "tap" procedure vs wondering if I should just place the whole branch in the hive? The bees reassured me all was a go for them and they dint want the branch to go with them ! …… "Tap" - they all went in beautifully, and went right to the sides of the hive. We saw the queen, at least I thought she was the queen? She was beautiful, walking about her workers...seemingly already on mission and setting out in purposeful direction, knowing this was home.
We watched for awhile and then I started placing the top bars back in place. The bees were fun to work with - very gentle, even when scooting them out of the way so they didn't get pinched. We let the hive sit for maybe another hour – allowing any scout bees to find their way back to the swarm – now settling in to their new home. It was already evening. Once all bees seemed to be inside we carried the hive back to its foundation.
Thanks to Tom Mansell, and Tamara Wendt, who were there with their cell phone camera’s and helping to hold a steady and peaceful space- we have photos and a lovely video of the event. Both Tom and Tamara happen to be the video tech wizards for the sanctuary and were able to edit and upload the video below - what a miracle in itself – that we were able to capture this event for a visual sharing of the birth in process!
Miracles are normal!
Here's the Video:
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