Arlene is a super-cool mail carrier who works in the West Adams neighborhood. She passed the Bee Rescue Hotline number to Catherine, who lives on her route and had a swarm in a tree in front of her duplex.
The tiny swarm that Amy and I captured in that same block on Saturday took off, so I had an empty nuc box and a free hour—I headed back there.
This was a bigger swarm than the one we caught Saturday. The only hassle with collecting it was the massive stink of bleach that went up when I shook the tree—some genius neighbor had sprayed the bees with some sort of bathroom cleanser. The inside of the nuc box must have smelled a lot more inviting to the swarm.
I let the box sit for 45 minutes or so, until there were plenty of bees fanning around the opening and the remaining cluster in the tree was down to about 5% of its original size.
Mail carriers are a great resource for us—they see our neighborhoods on foot nearly every day. Pass the Bee Rescue Hotline (213-373-1104) along to yours!
