Z's Happy Bees

Z's Happy Bees Welcome to our Apiary Adventure! We are hobby beekeepers that do this as a family!

This swarm catch was probably the most dangerous one I’ve done. Standing on the top rung of the ladder is not recommende...
06/11/2026

This swarm catch was probably the most dangerous one I’ve done. Standing on the top rung of the ladder is not recommended. I did get the Queen! I also spotted lots and lots of eggs!

I got a call early this morning from a fellow beekeeper about a ground swarm at the 7-11 in Mount Vernon. I quickly grab...
06/08/2026

I got a call early this morning from a fellow beekeeper about a ground swarm at the 7-11 in Mount Vernon. I quickly grabbed a box and headed in to town. I set the bottom board down and grabbed the hive box. They were already crawling up the ramp. I spotted the Queen in the cluster and encouraged her to climb up and in! Probably the fasted swarm catch I’ve ever done! Back home and in the apiary in under an hour!

06/05/2026

This is one of the reasons I LOVE beekeeping. It’s so interesting and amazing. The aggressive colony that I tried to requeen unfortunately rejected the beautiful Queen I gave them. Even after all that careful introduction I did! Oh well. Anyway, they made a new one. Here she is running around with evidence of her mating flight still showing out of her abdomen!! I am so excited to see this colony finally turning it around. This colony is still more aggressive than I’d like but they only show it when I inspect them. They don’t bug (Lol) us out in our yard anymore.

Swarm catch in Mount Vernon, this was a large bivouac which was a challenge to get to. The roof access was up two differ...
06/04/2026

Swarm catch in Mount Vernon, this was a large bivouac which was a challenge to get to. The roof access was up two different ladders. So I stuck with my little giant ladder. I was able to scoop the bivouac into a box pretty easily, but quite a few bees kept trying to go under a piece of flashing. I’m not sure if this is an established colony and the swarm bivouacked right outside their entrance or the swarm landed here and were just starting to make it a home.

Remember the swarm that I caught in the apple tree? The one I had to re-catch when most of them went back to the tree. I...
06/03/2026

Remember the swarm that I caught in the apple tree? The one I had to re-catch when most of them went back to the tree. I had noticed wax on the branches and knew that this swarm had been in the tree for a few days. I had my suspicions about this queen. It’s unusual for a swarm to stay bivouacked for more than a day or two. I wondered if the queen was old or injured and couldn’t fly. Today I inspected them and discovered quite a few supersedure cells. I looked all over and couldn’t find a queen. I found larva at different stages as well as supersedure cells so I know that they had a queen when I brought them home. But for some reason, they no longer had one. I got down on my hands and knees and searched the ground in front of the hive because sometimes you can find a dead queen. Bees are very clean and they carry the dead out of the hive. Sure enough, I found her and it looks like she had a crooked wing, so she probably was unable to fly and the colony sensed that she was damaged so like true Spartans they killed her and are starting again.

Blackberries are starting to bloom. Yesterday evening, after I got home from that chimney swarm catch, I put honey super...
06/01/2026

Blackberries are starting to bloom. Yesterday evening, after I got home from that chimney swarm catch, I put honey supers on!

I got a call this afternoon for a swarm that had landed on a chimney pipe. When I got there I found that the bivouac had...
06/01/2026

I got a call this afternoon for a swarm that had landed on a chimney pipe. When I got there I found that the bivouac had moved inside the pipe. 😕 I was not optimistic about this being a successful retrieval. I was able to reach in and scoop out about half the bees. I was able to scoop out about 25% more with a modified tiki torch basket that the homeowner rigged up. I also poured a bit of “honey bandit” on some moss and dropped it down below the bees. They don’t like the smell and will run away from it. I must have scooped up the Queen because the bees that were still in the pipe started crawling up and out and flying into the box! I am extremely happy that I was able to give these bees a new home and the homeowner was spared the complications of a bees nest in their chimney!

Mostly posting this so I can come back later and check the date. 😂 Another oxalic acid v***r treatment. This is very eff...
05/29/2026

Mostly posting this so I can come back later and check the date. 😂 Another oxalic acid v***r treatment. This is very effective on mites that are on bees or crawling around the hive. It is ineffective on mites that are munching away on larvae which are developing in a capped cell. This is why I repeat treatments.

Today is my birthday, we went scuba diving this morning, and are going to sushi for dinner..
05/25/2026

Today is my birthday, we went scuba diving this morning, and are going to sushi for dinner..

Another swarm catch this morning. This one had been bivouac for a couple of days. They did not want to leave their tree....
05/24/2026

Another swarm catch this morning. This one had been bivouac for a couple of days. They did not want to leave their tree. I scooped 90% of the bees into the box and then something changed. A signal only they could hear. They left the box and bivouac back in the tree. I tried a different way of scooping them. I scooped them directly into a beeswax frame then put that into the box. I must have gotten the Queen because as soon as I put the first frame into the box the bees started fanning to release a nasonov pheromone. This is a homing beacon for the rest of the bivouac and flying bees. Within thirty minutes all the bees were in the box!

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Mount Vernon, WA
98274

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