Puma Ghostwalker
A Story Is Like One Thread In A Garment…….All The Threads Combined Create a Pattern of Purpose and Harmony
It was a cold dark rainy day in spring when my phone rang, a wild hive swarmed.
The kindly, frantic, observer, worried about the honey bees,did a Google search for "Bee Swarms in NYC", came across an article in the New York Times.
The persistent woman called the Times and spoke to the reporter professor Ava Chin Ph.D., who wrote the story,
about a man who catches bees and relocates them, the reporter called me.
The sun was sinking fast, and with the rain I knew the bees would stay put over night, surrounding the queen, keeping warm.
Honey bees will swarm when a new Queen is created and the new queen will summon
a percentage of the colony to follow her. She didn’t have to ask the Drones twice, drones being the males have only one purpose, to mate with the queen, only one chap mates and then he dies. The bees gorge themselves on the honey stored then flyaway creating a cloud of bees in a magical mating dance in the sky. After the queen is mated the swarm lands and creates the lasting bond with their new queen. Scout bees are sent out to search for a suitable home, and in this time one can approach the bees, collecting them quite easily in their docile state, intoxicated from... Ambrosia and Opulence .
The following day I arrived and observed the swarm in a tree in-between the power wires
running out through the wires and along the street. I couldn’t climb the tree to get at the swarm, I couldn’t put a ladder on the tree next to the bees, the branches were too small and wouldn’t support me. My only choice was to rest the ladder on the power wires and climb from there. I wasn’t really worried about electrocution; I have done lots of stupid things like this all my life.
First things first…..I went up with my camera and took some shots, then the woman asked if she could go up and photograph the bees too, I admired her zeal for wild things.
After analyzing the situation I knew this was going to be tricky, I have to climb slowly not to shake the bees off as I go up. The bees have to be put into a bucket with a lid to encapsulate them, and this will require the use of both my hands and I will be a t the very top of the ladder with a "no hands mom" moment reaching out, off balance, trying to catch….10,000 Stinging Insects.
Sometimes I have cut the branch and put the whole thing in the container, but not this time.
The branches are interconnected and the main branch is about 18 mm thick, cutting it will shake the bees off and scatter the swarm or harm the queen. I purposed a solution of
holding the bucket right under the swarm with one hand, then shaking the branch with the other, the bees dropping into the bucket, holding the lid in my mouth, quickly releasing the branch grabbing the lid from my mouth and covering the bees….
…...Sounds Crazy…Right?
OH!!!! And I have to do it without gloves…. I’m so high up, its so tricky and dangerous
I can’t risk the lack of dexterity using gloves.
And That’s My Plan…..
I went up and did as I planed, with the exception that a clump of bees landed on the back of my hand holding the bucket…..This is when you really need to focus……block fear out, stick with the plan. I cant really say how many times I was stung but the bees got a new home and I couldn’t wear a glove for two days, my hand was so swollen.
Honey bees have been in a decline globally for some time now, I lost all my bees the prior winter, many of my relocated bees to wild places perished, many hives I found in the spring storm that knocked down tens of thousands of trees in NYC were destroyed.
There was a 30% fatality rate above the normal decline of honey bees in America that year.
There is much to be concerned about….
We need to be more diligent in educating the public….
We need to clean up our mess…
We need to find our place in balance with the rest of the world…
OR ELSE…….
Where the story begins.....
www.flickr.com/photos/28771820@N03/4656138822/in/set-7215...
A Story Is Like One Thread In A Garment…….All The Threads Combined Create a Pattern of Purpose and Harmony
It was a cold dark rainy day in spring when my phone rang, a wild hive swarmed.
The kindly, frantic, observer, worried about the honey bees,did a Google search for "Bee Swarms in NYC", came across an article in the New York Times.
The persistent woman called the Times and spoke to the reporter professor Ava Chin Ph.D., who wrote the story,
about a man who catches bees and relocates them, the reporter called me.
The sun was sinking fast, and with the rain I knew the bees would stay put over night, surrounding the queen, keeping warm.
Honey bees will swarm when a new Queen is created and the new queen will summon
a percentage of the colony to follow her. She didn’t have to ask the Drones twice, drones being the males have only one purpose, to mate with the queen, only one chap mates and then he dies. The bees gorge themselves on the honey stored then flyaway creating a cloud of bees in a magical mating dance in the sky. After the queen is mated the swarm lands and creates the lasting bond with their new queen. Scout bees are sent out to search for a suitable home, and in this time one can approach the bees, collecting them quite easily in their docile state, intoxicated from... Ambrosia and Opulence .
The following day I arrived and observed the swarm in a tree in-between the power wires
running out through the wires and along the street. I couldn’t climb the tree to get at the swarm, I couldn’t put a ladder on the tree next to the bees, the branches were too small and wouldn’t support me. My only choice was to rest the ladder on the power wires and climb from there. I wasn’t really worried about electrocution; I have done lots of stupid things like this all my life.
First things first…..I went up with my camera and took some shots, then the woman asked if she could go up and photograph the bees too, I admired her zeal for wild things.
After analyzing the situation I knew this was going to be tricky, I have to climb slowly not to shake the bees off as I go up. The bees have to be put into a bucket with a lid to encapsulate them, and this will require the use of both my hands and I will be a t the very top of the ladder with a "no hands mom" moment reaching out, off balance, trying to catch….10,000 Stinging Insects.
Sometimes I have cut the branch and put the whole thing in the container, but not this time.
The branches are interconnected and the main branch is about 18 mm thick, cutting it will shake the bees off and scatter the swarm or harm the queen. I purposed a solution of
holding the bucket right under the swarm with one hand, then shaking the branch with the other, the bees dropping into the bucket, holding the lid in my mouth, quickly releasing the branch grabbing the lid from my mouth and covering the bees….
…...Sounds Crazy…Right?
OH!!!! And I have to do it without gloves…. I’m so high up, its so tricky and dangerous
I can’t risk the lack of dexterity using gloves.
And That’s My Plan…..
I went up and did as I planed, with the exception that a clump of bees landed on the back of my hand holding the bucket…..This is when you really need to focus……block fear out, stick with the plan. I cant really say how many times I was stung but the bees got a new home and I couldn’t wear a glove for two days, my hand was so swollen.
Honey bees have been in a decline globally for some time now, I lost all my bees the prior winter, many of my relocated bees to wild places perished, many hives I found in the spring storm that knocked down tens of thousands of trees in NYC were destroyed.
There was a 30% fatality rate above the normal decline of honey bees in America that year.
There is much to be concerned about….
We need to be more diligent in educating the public….
We need to clean up our mess…
We need to find our place in balance with the rest of the world…
OR ELSE…….
Where the story begins.....
www.flickr.com/photos/28771820@N03/4656138822/in/set-7215...