I got a call last Friday that there was a colony of bees swarming on a branch in a front yard tree of our Sheboygan home! For me, this was an opportunity! I have been without bees for several years and was giddy at the prospect of catching a swarm as a means of transitioning back into the hobby again. I got the call while at work and quickly drove out to our country home to get the hive boxes and my gear so that I would have a place for them once captured.
By the time I got back to our Sheboygan home, it started to rain and the sudden reality of the difficulty in catching them became apparent to me because they were at least 25 feet up in a tree branch and there was just no real way that I could access them. As you can see below, I tried to back my pickup up onto the curb and set up a ladder in the back, but this guy is scared of heights (or at least scared of falling) and regardless I was still about 3 feet too low even when I was as far up the ladder as possible.
Our friendly neighbor from across the street had a saw that he could extend on a pole and we decided to try that the next day if they were still there since it was starting to pour rain and I felt guilty about having him out there any more. Unfortunately, we missed the boat because the next morning the swarm was gone and never to be found again.
I think this has opened up my eyes a little towards the possibility of eventually starting at least one beehive in our backyard at some point the future, but I have so many other things on my plate right now and also need to figure out a way to make sure the dogs don’t get stung. I have some boxes in Sheboygan now so my response time will be a lot faster if I am ever faced with the opportunity to catch another swarm in the future. Otherwise, I expect to wait until next year and will probably buy some bees to start the hobby once again (with Natalie’s permission of course).
