Has there ever been a day for you that you crawled into the bed at the end of the night body weary, but you have a smile on your face that just won’t quit. Well that was last Saturday night for me. Saturday morning my friend Henry and I took down the swarm trap I had built, now full of bees, and settled the girls in a their permanent  home. It went so well! The only thing that could have gone better would have been if the bees had used the frames I had provided for them! “Smirk”

My swarm trap was only up one week and a swarm of bees moved in! If you want to build a trap like I did see here. My wonderful son hung up my trap on the edge of the creek behind our church in Frisco Texas. On Easter Sunday it was so exciting to see bees going in and out! I scrambled to get my hive equipment together so that we could move the bees to their permanent home.

My friend Henry and I have been dreaming of bee keeping together and now our dreams are a reality! Henry is kind, clever, witty and wise. His wife Iris is one of the best cooks I know. She somehow bakes love into every bite. You can taste it! I am thrilled to have an excuse to go visit to check on my bees.(wink,wink)

One week later in the cool of the morning we went to crack into the trap and see what we had. The bees were so quiet we thought it might have been a false alarm. Turns out they were huddled down at one end of the trap trying to keep warm probably. I am glad we took it down when we did, because they ignored the frames I had taken a lot of effort to place there and were building comb inside one end of the trap. At first it appeared that they didn’t have any brood,(baby bee eggs & larvea) but we noticed later that there was a tiny egg in each cell of comb. I had never seen a bee egg before!

  We were able to leave one bit of comb in their new hive and left them a pollen paddy to snack on. They looked like they were feeling right at home with orientation flights when we put the sugar syrup in on Sunday afternoon. If you don’t know what orientation flights are; the bees do a flight, in the form of a figure 8, arcing out away from the hive and back again. Apparently they are setting their built in GPS on the location of home.

We made sure to leave their entrance hole small so they could easily guard the hive against robbers. Being a relatively small hive they are easy pickings for a stronger hive to come in and take the sugar syrup I left them. Luckily, Spring time is abundant with nectar sources for everyone so they will most likely be just fine.

Since this swarm settled into the trap at my church on Easter Sunday we decided to name it the Bee-atitudes! If you don’t know what that means then look it up in Matthew 5:3-11. As usual Jesus is turning the thoughts of the times upside down in the Sermon on the Mount and giving his disciples, and us, something to think about. So fun to have my church family involved in this exciting capture!

Last Saturday I climbed into bed, nestled back into My Father’s arms and marveled at the work of His hands! Watch the video and marvel along with us.

My wonderful and talented Princess took a video of the whole thing which she put to music and everything! Wait till you see how we decorated the hive! Enjoy.

This post was shared on Simple Homestead Blog Hop