OT Unusual Evening

Yesterday, I got a call from the manager of the park where my mom lived. Whenever he calls I wonder what problem arose this time. He told me there was a swarm of bees by in the tree we planted for her several years ago, so we headed over there, expecting a hornet nest going by what he told us, so we pulled up and watched from the car to determine what they were. We had binoculars so we could see them better. Turns out it was honey bees, lots of them! They covered a large are of the main branch and then went to the 2 branches coming off that, so it was 3 or 4 ft. tall and wrapped all around it. I haven't seen that many bees in one place since i was a kid. I don't know how man layers of bees where on it, but it was thick.

We called a bee keeper and he was eager to come right away. Once he got there and saw it, he said it was going to be trickier to collect them than he thought since they went on other branches. He wished he had brought his bee vacuum. He suited up and started scraping them into a box, but they didn't stay there long. He also had a hive set up. They started swarming more than they were.

The guy figured there were 40,000 of them. They were just going every which way. I had come after me and he got tangled up in my hair and I couldn't get him out. I eventually got stung in the hand when I came into contact with him in my hair. So I thought I may as well leave it to get the venom, but then it started hurting too much. I think my dh may have squeezed the venom into me. It got me right where my pointer finger joins the palm of my hand. It's more swollen this morning. I passed up the chance to get stung all over. LOL. Some Lymies might have, but one sting was painful enough, and I have a pretty high pain tolerance.

He finished getting the hive ready and headed home, planning on coming back when it was about dark, so he called us when he was ready to go back and we went to see if he got them and he did. They were all in the hive. So he was a happy guy. He'll get 2 hives from them.

He brought us some honey when he came back, so that was nice of him. He explained why they were on the tree, so we learned something new. Several neighbors came to watch, so it was a fun evening. I'm still a little wound up, but I slept good. I was glad to see such a big group of bees in one place and I was glad it wasn't hornets! Why they chose that Japanese maple tree over much larger trees in the area, I don't know. It gave us a good view of them.

40,000 of them?? WOW!!!!

Bee vacuum?? Wow!

Did he tell you they were relocating? I'm curious now!!

I'm glad you only got one sting from all of that!! I'm like you, only I swell up horribly when I get stung. Last time I got stung on the hand, my whole arm was swollen stiff. Very painful, even though I immediately submerged my arm (all of it!!) in ice.

What I was wondering is if the beekeeper thought the bees were trying to relocate. I had read an article that bees will swarm like that when they are relocating. Just curious if the beekeeper had said anything. It's really no big deal.

We've had lots of bees of all shapes and sizes around our place in the last few years, but we do our best to have lots of herbs and garden plants that they love.

Wow! Definitely unusual :)