Received a call for a swarm that was hanging in a tree, she said it was 6' off the ground, end up being 12'. I asked her how big it was and she said about the size of a basket ball. I asked her how long it had been there she said 2 months. :shock: My partner Jim went and checked it out and it was a beautiful football sized open air hive on a 3" diameter branch. That evening after work we went back to get them. The bees were as calm as a can bee. I have a picture holding them up next to my face after I had cut the branch from the tree. The only problem we had was from cutting it and moving it the comb started falling off. the wax was so fresh that every time I tried to pick up a section it would colapes and start to fall. I could not work it, cut and shape it without resting it on something. I only got 1 sting on my finger tip and that was my fault for crushing her. After 15 minutes I couldn't even tell which finger it had been. The woman that called us took some videos and is supposed to send them to me. If she does, I will try to post them. we did not find the queen. I even checked the next morning and did not find her. there are lots of larva and eggs in every empty cell so if she did not make it they should be able to make a new one. We spent a lot of time searching the ground around where the comb dropped but could not find her.
Jim
Topic: Open air hive (Read 2701 times)