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Honey Bee Swarm in my Yard


TTQ B4U

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So after a long hot day at the Dublin Pool with the family I came home, cracked a cold beer and started to grill up some dinner. Nothing at that time struck me as odd nor caught my attention as the dogs played in the yard while I cooked. Timing proved on our side.

 

Shorty after were sitting down to eat I noticed what I initially thought was a bunch of Japanese Beetles or something around two small crab apple trees we have in our yard. We looked a bit closer at the two trees just about 10' from our kitchen windows and noticed a swarm of these bugs that completely engulfed the two 10-12' tall trees.

 

I stepped outside and there was no mistaking that sound. Thousands of bees buzzing immediately gave me the willies. I did managed to grab both my video camera and my SLR to grab some footage though. :)

 

Here are two pics. I got a handful of good ones, but was more into grabbing some video, so that will be coming shortly.

 

I have a message into Jason aka Akula but am not sure he's available. My guess is they settled in for tonight but hopefully will not find a permanent home in my house!

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/144010567/original.jpg

 

 

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/144010552/original.jpg

Edited by TTQ B4U
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You should totally go over to the branch and shake it.

 

I did that by mistake back in 2009 when this nest of Bald Face Hornets was there and I didn't know. I was chopping away at some suckers were coming up from the trunk of the tree and eventually heard/saw a small bunch of drones flying around. Needless to say I ran like heck and then got some great pics. :gabe: I killed the hornets and dissected the nest, but honey bees are our friends, so these can live another day.

 

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/114600021/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/114659116/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/114838785/original.jpg

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I did that by mistake back in 2009 when this nest of Bald Face Hornets was there and I didn't know. I was chopping away at some suckers were coming up from the trunk of the tree and eventually heard/saw a small bunch of drones flying around. Needless to say I ran like heck and then got some great pics. :gabe: I killed the hornets and dissected the nest, but honey bees are our friends, so these can live another day.

 

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/114600021/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/114659116/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/114838785/original.jpg

 

I like the second pic where they look like they would be asking "can we help you? "

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Kill it with firee...better yet shoot roman candles at it.. AWESOME!!!!

 

ha ha! I actually had a dream about doing that. Didn't end well though :no:

 

yeah, standard honey bee swarm nothing to see here

 

fixed.

 

I like the second pic where they look like they would be asking "can we help you? "

 

Yeah. It was wild finding out that here I was hacking away under a nest of what are considered to be highly aggressive hornets.

 

nice yard

 

Thanks. Give me a couple months though. It's currently in the worst shape it's been in a number of years. The flower bed under the trees has gone to crap and over the past several years we lost about 75% of the perennials under the back trees due to crazy freeze/thaw situations. Deck is being done this week and now that the front is 95% the back is my focus. :)

 

Couple more pics with flash. Even though Jason aka Akula said they are very docile in this stage, I didn't stick around long when firing away otherwise, I'd love to get my macro lens and some lighting out there. Call me a pussy.

 

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/143970015/original.jpg

 

 

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/143970014/original.jpg

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Yeah. It was wild finding out that here I was hacking away under a nest of what are considered to be highly aggressive hornets.

 

Highly aggressive is putting it nicely. Pure unadulterated evil is a better description. Fuckers put me in the hospital.

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My apologies for not getting back with you. The guy i know that does bee keeping never called me back.

 

No problem. They are still there this morning. I'm thinking and hoping they find a new home sometime today as the weather clears. I need to mow the back yard and while they are very docile in the swarm state, I'm not sure they would be Lawn boy Mower friendly. :)

 

I did get a call back from a farm in Mt. Vernon who is going to check schedules and what not and call me back. Hopefully they can come get them.

Edited by TTQ B4U
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Where is the swarm located?

 

In my backyard about 6' off the ground in a small tree. We live up near The Anderson's General Store in NW Cbus at the edge of Dublin/Worthington. Seems a bit larger today. Going to get a few more pics. Got some great / better video already.

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I can't believe the fun of it all and timing. I came home from some errands, told the kids to grab their cameras so we could get some shots now that the sun is out and as soon as we stepped outside, they began to swarm again. I ran back inside to get the kids safe and grabbed my video camera. Caught pretty much the entire exodus. Video should be available soon :p

 

I'm a big animal planet watcher and must say the past couple days were fucking awesome!

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Couple more pics from today.

 

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/144004946/original.jpg

 

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/144004948/original.jpg

 

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/144004949/original.jpg

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Here's the other video including the exit to their new home. Skip to 1:05 to see the exit.

 

https://vimeo.com/43931046

 

The video was shot in 1080p but for the sake of downloads it's been converted to 720p by Vimeo's site. I can retain the details at 1080p and will look into it.

 

I say this only because the details of thousands of bees shows through much much better on my screen vs the web upload. I'll see if it fixes that.

 

Enjoy!

Edited by TTQ B4U
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