My first swarm was January 23rd from one of my hives. Since then I have taken 3 swarms from Oak Trees at the Santa Rosa Junior College. I have had swarm calls there in previous years, when I get a swarm from the same bush! I have taken some bees out of a trailer which was filled with garbage. The bees were in a couch, which had had bees in it for 3 years. Our weather has been unusually rainy and the bees use just a break in the rain to swarm. I got a 15 pound swarm and a 4 pound swarm in an apple orchard after they had been there for 4 days. These issued from another beeks hives. He called me to collect them as he was moving bees from the almonds to the oranges. I got some wet bees (3 days) on the overhang of a barn. Another beekeeper called me to get these bees. They always have swarms from the old oak trees, where there are 4 feral nests. Those bees decided to attack me, when I was brushing them into the lid of a swarm box. I had the swarm box balanced between the ladder and my knees, so I had to get it, and the lid and walk down the ladder and place the bees on the ground. Full venom load. Whew! About 30 hits to the face and scalp. I was a puffy gal. LOL But, I got the queen!

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