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That's awesome Grove.
I took off a little early friday and did a cutout in a big old cedar tree at a cemetery, I figured it would take an hour or so, but it took closer to 4 since I was alone, and I'm not confident I got a queen. I got most of the comb but there were a lot of holes in the inside of the rotted tree for her to hide.
I checked the cutout I did a week ago and I had put queen cells in there but no sign of eggs yet, so i probably need to buy 2 queens.
While I was working hives saturday, I saw a swarm cluster....a big cluster in a cedar tree. I'm sure they swarmed from one of my hives but I got them and it was easy...put a box under them, gave the tree a shake and I was done in 10 minutes.
Saturday afternoon I helped a friend bait and set a swarm trap. His grandmother used to keep bees and had equipment. I had agreed to help her get bees this year because she wanted some...but she passed away. My friend still wants them to honor her, so I set him up. While there, I saw in the barns that his grandmother had kept hives for Mason bees in every barn......It's not a honey maker, but I'm intrigued by that and might consider putting one together for the native pollinator.
Did a quick check of 2 of my traps and I have a swarm in one of them that I'll go get tonight or tomorrow if it rains.
I bottled 5 gallons friday night.
I'm going from bee poor to running out of equipment pretty fast. Time to spend some money I guess.
Cutouts are so much harder...take so much more time.....and so much less chance of a queen I'm giving that second thought unless they are easy.
Happy Bee hunting.
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