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I swung by the house for lunch today. Bout 20 minutes later I walked out the front door to leave. Stepped outside and heard a loud buzzing sound. Turned around and there was a swarm of about 3000+ bees swarming over my backyard. My neighbor walked over and said he was out in his front yard when they buzzed right over his head and flew into my backyard. After about 10 minutes they balled up on a tree branch right over my back door bout 40 feet up. I've heard of this, but never seen it.

He said he has dealt with it a few times. And thinks they'll hang out for a day or two before moving on.

Whatcha all think?

Cell phone photo was worthless

Use a vacuum cleaner. I hear that works well.

Yea I saw that somewhere. Didn't work from what I recall

Was wondering if smoking em out would work if they decide to hang out for awhile longer

Call a beekeeper I have heard they will usually come and get them no charge.

Yep, a beekeeper will haul ass out there to get them.

assateague wrote:Yep, a beekeeper will haul ass out there to get them.

i haven't gotten a good enough look at em yet to even know if they're honey bees

Had a similar thing happen. This swarm balled up on the gauge wheel of the grass header of my chopper in the 10 minutes it took me to go get my lunch out of my truck.

They were really subdued. I caught almost all of them in a paper bag and have them to the beekeeper in the area.

assateague wrote:Yep, a beekeeper will haul ass out there to get them.

Here, you'll have to hunt for one to mosey on out and haul them away for $200. Seems no one keeps wild bees anymore, and they now get all their queens from, no joke, somewhere in California where they're particularly well domesticated. Learned that when a buddy found these in his camp:

Man up and go whack 'em with a stick.

Y'all were right. Saw a termite and pest control guy today and waved him down. He said if they ball up like they did, 99.9% of the time they're honey bees. Gave me a whole list of local beekeepers. First guy on the list I called said he'll be out in two hours

Beekeeper said once a hive gets overcrowded, half the hive will split and go look for a new home. Said they'll usually bounce around looking for a new home until the new queen is ready to mate and lay eggs. Which is what happened today. He said the only thing ya don't want to happen is for them to chose your attic or crawl space for a new home

The more you know....

Well, I'm late to the party again. I was gonna help you out, no really I was. Looks like, with all that extra time on your hands, you'll be taking care of things around the house more now.

QH's Paw wrote:Well, I'm late to the party again. I was gonna help you out, no really I was. Looks like, with all that extra time on your hands, you'll be taking care of things around the house more now.

or more time to bust your balls

Paul estimated 30,000+ bees in this hive. So my original guess was off by a few. But he was excited. Said it was the largest hive like this he'd seen this year so far

That's pretty crazy. I've never heard of that

The kids got a kick outta watching

Redbeard wrote:The kids got a kick outta watching

I bet. That's actually pretty neat.

Did you tell him to drop off a couple quarts of honey.... whenever he has the time?

Seems like if you work with or do something nice for a bee guy you get the hookup with the honey. Its a nice traid. I Love that's stuff.

GadwallGetter530 wrote:Seems like if you work with or do something nice for a bee guy you get the hookup with the honey. Its a nice traid. I Love that's stuff.

honestly didn't cross my mind. But I didn't know if he woulda thought he was doing me a favor or the other way around

Redbeard wrote:

GadwallGetter530 wrote:Seems like if you work with or do something nice for a bee guy you get the hookup with the honey. Its a nice traid. I Love that's stuff.

honestly didn't cross my mind. But I didn't know if he woulda thought he was doing me a favor or the other way around

The couple times I've had my buddy dave out at my place to catch a hive in a tree. He was always super happy. Those are free bees and a new hive for pollination and honey. To him its like free money.

Redbeard wrote:

GadwallGetter530 wrote:Seems like if you work with or do something nice for a bee guy you get the hookup with the honey. Its a nice traid. I Love that's stuff.

honestly didn't cross my mind. But I didn't know if he woulda thought he was doing me a favor or the other way around

You did him a solid

Has nobody considered the possibility that all of these bees are located in California and might be gay?

sws002 wrote:Has nobody considered the possibility that all of these bees are located in California and might be gay?

Did they go "buzzth buzzth"?

3legged_lab wrote:

sws002 wrote:Has nobody considered the possibility that all of these bees are located in California and might be gay?

Did they go "buzzth buzzth"?

I think those would be Shakespearean bees.

3legged_lab wrote:

sws002 wrote:Has nobody considered the possibility that all of these bees are located in California and might be gay?

Did they go "buzzth buzzth"?

They just go Zzzzzzz!

Every time I see this thread title, I read it in a Chris Farley voice.

assateague wrote:Every time I see this thread title, I read it in a Chris Farley voice.

"your firearms are useless against them!"

Glad you found someone that would come get them Red! I had them swarm and get under the planking on the side my house a few years back, and when I called an Apiary (sp?), there was going to be a $300 charge for him to come and lure the queen away......fuck that! Hated to kill'em, but wasn't gonna spend $300 to get them gone. Liquid Sevin sprayed into the crack with a pump up sprayer did the trick. Didn't use any netting and never got stung, pretty docile. Must've killed the queen because they moved on.

Honey bees have practically vanished from PA. Fucking colony collapse disorder. It's a Holocaust. Farmers have to hire bee keepers to pollinate crops. Too bad marijuana doesn't need to be pollinated. You'd be rich bitch.