by Steve Boggs
On May 8, my 70th birthday, a large swarm of honeybees landed in the young maple tree in my front yard in Cumberland Village, Gettysburg. My wife, Rosie, heard them first and asked what that noise was. We watched the cloud of bees as they slowly gathered on one of the tree limbs about 10 feet off the ground. They made quite a racket going in. After several minutes they settled down in a large clump that was three feet long and two feet wide, heavy enough to bend the branch so that I thought it might break.
I Googled swarming bees and found out that when a new queen bee comes along, part of an existing hive swarms around the new queen and goes in search of a new hive. They usually end up setting up a hive in the hollow part of an old tree trunk but may stop and rest on a branch during their search for 24-72 hours before moving on.
Searching for beekeepers in the local area I found a company called Dawg Gone Bees in New Oxford which also just opened a store in Gettysburg on Baltimore Street. I talked to the owner, Hal Mack, and asked him what if anything I should do about the swarm. Mack offered to come and get them. He is always looking for bee swarms to start a new hive for his honey business.
Mack arrived at about 5:15 p.m. and parked his truck under the tree in my yard. After placing two hive boxes on top of his truck under the swarm, he climbed a step ladder to try and cut off the tree branch, but the swarm encircled more than one branch. So, wearing only shorts and a pullover shirt, he shook the bees off the branch. Most of the swarm landed in the hive boxes, but a lot of them landed on Mack too. He told me later that he got stung about eight times. Occupational hazard, I guess.
Next, to calm the swarm, Mack got a smoke billow out of his truck and put some dried pine needles in it. He said that the queen bee must have fallen into one of the hive boxes as the other bees all started gathering in the boxes with her. He said that all the bees were females and affectionately called them girls when he urged them into the hive boxes. Once they were settled, he secured the stacked boxes on the top of his truck. Before leaving, Mack rewarded me with a $50 gift certificate to buy honey in his stores, then he drove off with his new hive.
It was a win/win/win situation for all of us. The honeybees got the new home they were looking for, Mr. Mack got a profitable new hive to make more honey for his stores, and I got a $50 gift certificate.
Happy Birthday to me.
For a bee keeper, there’s nothing like the thrill of catching a swarm of bees! Hal’s a great guy and seems to have devoted his life to the honey bee in oh so many ways! Thanks for taking the initiative and saving this swarm by reaching out! It’s that time of the year for swarms! Thanks too, to Steve for writing about this save and to the Gettysburg Connection for publishing! (Here’s one we saved a couple of weeks ago).
That’s a great story! Glad it worked out for everyone! When I was a kid we had three different swarms come to my grandparents house, every time we called a bee guy, but the second swarm that came attacked our beagle he was stung over 200 times and we had to put him down. Another thing that was scary about bees is when I was kid we where at a fair where they had jelly to try on crackers the jelly jars were open and bees were flying in it getting stuck and sting the jelly, my sister throat started… Read more »
Thank you for your birthday wish. I also had a pet dog that was killed by ground hornets.
I love living in a rural area and hearing/reading stories like this. This was really lovely! Thank you for sharing it!