Outdoor Cooking with The Smoker King

A while ago we made a screech owl box. Got one in it but the 2 great horned owls run her off. Bees took up residence. Unfortunately, I became interested in the bees. HONEY. I put together a top bar hive and baited it with lemon grass oil hoping to catch them when they swarmed. Nope, not happening. After several swarms: and before their next one, I decided to build a swarm trap out of a flower pot. Nope, not happening. We actually missed the swarming by mere seconds. We did see them high in a pine tree for a while. Then they were gone. I kinda watched the trap for a few days, but nadda. A buddy came over Sunday while I was working on our UDS's with some of his homemade salsa. I was munching and shooting the breeze with Tony when I looked out of the shop and saw, not believing, we actually had a bingo with bees in the trap. Now, although this was cool; it meant that now I actually have to deal with them. I gotta move them to the hive. Going do it, but it's one of those Hmmmm moments. Picking up a bee suit from my cuz tomorrow. Color me nervous.

Very interesting! I think you are going to have a good time getting that sucker down.

I hope they are tame.

Good luck to you with the bees. I have never been scared of a few bees, however I do not mess around with bee hives or wasp nest. I have known to many people who have under estimated just how many might be in them and how many times they might get stung. Once again good luck.

We got the hive moved tonight, not bad at all. Bee suit bee the deal. Light smoke and moved them into the hive. Never did it before, so do not know if they will stay, but so far they are in it. Moved them at 7:45, sundown at 8:15. They had some comb in the swarm trap, so I hung it in their hive. We also dusted them with powdered sugar to keep them busy. We will see. Took a video of the move, but it's a huge file and we don't know how yet to deal with it( pretty boring). In any event, it was a really cool time.

I hope it is not to early to congratulate you and that they stay where you want them. Good luck.

Great job! You could have fired up your smoker right under the hive, thrown a brisket on, and knocked out two birds with one stone.

That is so cool! They say to eat honey from your area and your allergies won't be as bad. Something like the pollen from your area in your body for anti-toxins. (You also could make mead and have some great fun while q'ing) great job!

Very cool indeed. My girlfriend has a bee box, and we get more honey than we know what to do with. We make a mixture of 2 parts white sugar & 1 part water in a sauce pan on low heat to dissolve the sugar. This is a great food source until they get established. The world of bees is very interesting. Some of their habits are so bizarre when you get to learning about them. I've been told that if you move their home even a few feet, they will not be able to find it. Something to do with their GPS. Hope some of this helps.

They do some weird things for sure. We came out early on morning and they had formed themselves into 4 cones on the bottom of the owl box, a cone of bees on each corner, about 4 inches wide at the top tapering down to a point about 6 inches long. Stayed that way for hours. We have a top bar hive (I made it from dimensions from the Barefoot Beekeeper), very low tech. No centrifuge needed. Supposedly just strain out the honey through cheese cloth and put the comb back near the hive and the bees will clean the rest up, leaving you the wax. We will see.