Busy Honey Bees

 No rain again for our walk but it sure looked liked the rain would be here soon. Thankfully it held off until this evening. Mike brought Oksana over for teasing and we got her covered during the walk. She didn't stand very well so may be going out. The airbnb guests sent a text to let me know they left the apartment and left a bag of garbage by the door. I took the golf cart up to grab it and take it to the dumpster but when I opened the apartment door was pretty shocked. The apartment was well lived in for the 2 days they were there and it looked like much more than the 3 people they booked for stayed. There was extra bedding out, furniture was moved, wet towels were in the supply closet, the toys Anna had left for children were gone, the cookie box was gone and of course the floors were a mess. Anna was called and she decided today was a good day to wash EVERYTHING, all of the blankets, comforters, sheets, pillowcases towels and washcloths. We had my machine going, the apartment machine going and her machines going.  I was taking the garbage to the dumpster when I drove through a cloud of bees. The hive in the fallen branch were swarming up on another branch. 

Joan was called and a ladder brought over.

Just about that time Evan had a mare come in for breeding. The owner of the mare was told about the bees and she just happened to have 4 swarms THIS year she was able to collect. She told Joan just what to do. She helped make a funnel out of cardboard and told Joan the best way to collect them. What a blessing to have her arrive just when needed. The mares name is Whisky and she was put in the paddock next to Valiant and hopefully will start to show soon. Below are a few pictures of Whiskey. The first two are of her in her shelter then the last picture she is staring at our mares in the pond pasture. 

Once the funnel was made Joan climbed the ladder and tried brushing the bees into the funnel with her bee brush.

She was hopeful that the queen bee was in the box, now we just had to find something to put the bees in. Joan had been trying to buy another hive box or even borrow one but wasn't able to. She went home to try to come up with something and I got on Facebook market place to try to find something but neither of us had any luck. When she got back it was obvious that the queen had not been in the cage but on the outside of it. She had flown back into the fallen log and the bees not in the cage had followed her. That meant she had to open the log to first find the queen then  harvest the honey. She brought the chain saw over and cut the log length wise.

Once she got the log apart she searched through the bees to find the queen.

When the queen was found she was put in the starter hive (the plastic box with a lid) the worker bees were busy following her into that box.

Then came the harvesting of honey.

She put a piece of honey comb in the box for the bees then moved more of the bees closer to the box.

Below is a video of the process.

Joan sent the picture below of the finished product.

It is really delicious and even sweeter because it was harvested off wild bees in a tree limb. Hope this new hive will survive. That soda bottle on top of the box is sugar water to keep them feeding while they get established. Joan will still need to transfer them into a hive once the rest of the bees have followed the queen inside. The hive was left here for the night.  This evening Lily's filly by Valiant sold. 

She is going to a repeat buyer, Brandee the lady that bought Ribbon's orphan colt she named Titan. Titan is such a wonderful horse for them they want another with the same bloodlines and Titan is this filly's half brother.