Los Angeles Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:
Monty, a science teacher in Harbor City, called in a swarm that a security guard told him about. Monty had worked with bees when he was a child, as his father had a hive. The security guard used to work in his home country (forget to get the name) in a bee farm with 250 hives! They wanted to keep these bees safe but couldn't keep a hive in their community. You can see from the picture that they felt comfortable getting up close and personal with the bees. Monty filmed the entire process so that he could show the children in his class.
The bush made it hard to get a box close to the swarm so I used my newly created bee scoop (a repurposed plastic bottle) and with a few scoops had a majority of the bees and queen in the box. I used vinegar for the first time to mask the smell of the queen in the bush and no bees returned to the original site. It was great!
I packed up my cheapo swarm box with a bunch of duct tape and I think it looks almost professional. They asked me for my card which was kind of funny. I was thanked for a good deed done for the day and was off.
