How I Got Started as a Bee Keeper.

by Happy Di
(Santa Barbara, CA)

I am 75 years old and have been interested in bees for pollination of my back yard fruit trees for many years.

One day I was sitting in my living room reading a book. My wife told me that we had two bees in the house. I thought that it was strange that two bees would be in the house. We could not think of how they got in. Not wanting to kill them I captured them and released them in the back yard.

Shortly after that we had four bees in the house. By the time I captured those four there were more. I went to the back yard, looked around and saw nothing. Again I found a greater number of bees in the house. I went out a second time and saw and heard bees flying at super speed all over the sky over our house in what I would call a frenzy.

I realized that they were coming in through our fire place. I tried smoking them out of the chimney with out success. They covered our sliding glass door. I then saw a cluster of bees at the top of the chimney. I put an onion bag over my head, thick leather work gloves on my hands and a coat with long sleeves. I went on the roof, pushed the cluster into a cardboard box and set it on the side of the house. I then took my vacuum cleaner and sucked up all the bees in the house. It took quite some time.

As it got dark I went up on the roof again (unprotected) thinking it was getting dark and the bees would be calm. I killed all the bees sitting at the chimney entrance. My thinking got me stung on my head and arms.

I called my son who lives in San Francisco and told him of my experience. He has three hives in his back yard. The following week he came down with a hive and transferred the bees from the cardboard box to the medium hive. Since then he purchased all the equipment to safely handle the bees for me.

This past Sunday I captured another swarm without killing many bees and now have two hives.

Hi Happy Di

Welcome to beekeeping, and thanks for sharing your experience. I think the onion skin veil was masterly, although I must say I wish you had included some photos of you in your make shift bee veil. If you do have photos I'd love to include them.

For future reference, if you manage to get a swarm into a box like that, it you leave it nearby upside down with the opening facing the ground, any stragglers will usually make their way inside as well.

Often beekeepers introduce their sons and daughters to beekeeping, great to hear of an instance of the reverse happening.

The Bee Guy