Matthew received a couple of boxes of bees the other day in the mail. Actually the Post Master called and said there were a couple boxes of live bees in his building and he wanted them out of there! And he was adamant that the sooner we got down to pick them up the better! It was clear that he meant “NOW!”

Matthew has been our family beekeeper for 3 years now. When he became interested in bees, I’m not sure that anyone in our family ever dreamed how much these tiny workhorses would benefit our little homestead. Of course Janis and I had visions of many, many jars of pure, raw, un-pasteurized golden honey with which to sweeten our lives. At the going rate of $20 per gallon (12#) at local apiaries, this seemed like a rather pertinent piece of the equation. However they have turned out to be much more than mere producers of honey.

When Matthew first became interested in raising bees, he read all kinds of books, made phone calls to other apiarists in the area and also visited with them in person, in order to understand the small stock he was going to be raising. He dove into the culture of bees and has broadened the horizons of our whole family as a result. These are such fascinating little animals! The complexities of a bee hive are a source of never ending enjoyment and wonder for us all.

It all started with ordering two hives and the bees to occupy them. They were set up at the side of our west garden where they would not be disturbed too much, but close enough where we could observe their comings and goings. That 1st year we did not realize any honey harvest from the bees as Matthew wanted to ensure that each hive had enough honey to see them through the long cold Idaho winter.

In the summer of their second year Matthew told us that the hives had increased in numbers to the point that they had outgrown their homes. It was time to divide the hives and establish new ones so that their numbers could continue to increase, along with the honey supply. Matthew had built several new hives and had them sitting by, stocked with frames, ready for the dividing. He had not yet had time to take care of this chore when he told us that he thought that the hives might swarm before he got to them. A hive swarms because of overcrowding. Before a swarm occurs, new queen cells are developed so that the remaining bees can raise up a new queen to perpetuate the hive. The old queen leaves the hive and will find a spot nearby where approximately half of the bees will follow and will bunch up and wait while scouts are sent out to find a new home. They will generally stay there an hour or two while the scouts do their thing, so if you are going to catch the swarm, your time is limited. Swarming is no big deal if you are ready and present to catch the swarm and their queen. However, there is always the chance that it will happen while you are gone or they will congregate in a place that is not accessible to you, and you will not be able to catch them, in which case – you loose half your bees! It happened on a Sunday morning. Our home fellowship had just finished up with our morning worship and had went outside to enjoy the sunshine for a bit before we gathered for lunch. The hives are about 100 yards from our house and as we looked over towards the west garden, it appeared that we were watching heat waves shimmering in the desert, like in an old western movie, mirage scene. It took a few minutes to realize we were watching thousands of bees swarming around the hives. Within 20 minutes the queen had went about 20 yards away to a blue spruce tree where her entourage rallied to her side and then surrounded her. It was fascinating to watch the cluster build. Matthew’s job of course was to catch the swarm along with the queen and install them in one of the new hives. Below are some pictures of Matthew gathering the swarm. It is obvious that Matthew had done his homework in how to go about catching a swarm. Most of us were not so gutsy, and watched from a reasonable (not so scary) distance.

Pictures of the swarm and descriptions -

Swarming – the pine cone looking objects are clusters of bees near the queen.


Bees congregating on a blue spruce tree about 7 feet up.


Matthew actually reaching inside the mass of bees to “feel the energy”.. Here is a hilarious post of Herrick’s -“Can You Feel The Energy?” that is worth reading – Don’t miss it! My family howled with laughter as I read this story out loud at the breakfast table.


Cutting the limb to put swarm into a screened capture box.


From this point, the bees are shaken into a screened catch box where if you have captured the queen, the rest will again gather by her side. They are then taken to the new hive.

A very interesting bit of information which not many people are aware of is that there are no honey bees native to America. Honey bees were imported from Europe. The current favorite – the Italian Honey Bee (mellifera ligustica spinola) was introduced to to the US in 1859, although there had been small numbers of German Black Bees since 1630, but they were prone to aggressiveness and low resistance to disease. Before 1630 the only pollinators in America were bumble bees, stingless bees, orchard bees, butterflies, etc. Every honey bee that you see today is the result of beekeepers cultivating this fascinating insect. The worth of small backyard beekeepers like Matthew cannot be measured in this country. The impact of apiarists and their craft on our crops are HUGE! One of the local bee houses have over 5000 hives and their bees spend the summer in Idaho pollinating both food and commodity crops. In winter, the hives are trucked to California to pollinate the almond orchards. The almond crop, it is speculated is doubled as a result of these Idaho bees. The almond growers pay big money for these little insects to come work for them and are very happy to do so! Then in spring they are again loaded up on trucks and brought back to Idaho to start the cycle all over again. In the past, on our own homestead, there have been years where we have hardly seen a bee. The blossoms on the fruit trees go unvisited and colorful blossoms in the gardens have fallen off without setting fruit. Our harvest of both fruit and vegetables during those years were sometimes quite meager. However, since Matthew has been raising these little guys, our harvests have been very, very impressive. The trees have been abuzz with activity (now there’s a pun). The crops in the last three years have easily doubled our best years before bees. Yes, the economic impact on our own little homestead has been very big. It made the difference between supplying 30% of our food supply and producing 80% on the same land. Big indeed! Janis’ flower beds are also a place of constant activity as bees methodically move from flower to flower collecting pollen. We get quite tickled at times knowing these little guys are working very hard, pollinating all those plants, and making us pure honey to boot! A bee’s travels can take them up to 3 miles from the hive. This makes a circle 6 miles across where other people just like us are benefiting from Matthew’s bees. Neighbors who were uneasy at first about having bee hives around now see tangible benefits and are happy to see them flying around – especially since hearing about colony collapse disorder (CCD) and beginning to realize the threat to man, should the bees disappear. Bees are directly responsible for 1/3 of the human food supply. It is no exaggeration to say that bees and beekeeping are very important to every person on the planet! It is estimated that if we continue losing hives to CCD at the present rate, the honey bee will be extinct by the year 2035.  CCD has not reached Idaho as of yet, however this last winter and spring, we lost several hives. We are not exactly sure of the cause although we do have our suspicions. Losing these hives is the reason Matthew received the new bees in the mail.

Below are some pictures of the bees and how Matthew establishes them in the new hive. It is very fascinating to witness.

6000 bees humming away in our basement.

The boxes are separated. Each will go into a separate hive.

The hives have been readied and Matthew opens the 1st box. Yes he has safety equipment, but he seldom uses it.

Inside each box of bees is a can of sugar water to feed the bees during mailing. The bees have to suck the sugar water It is removed and this opens the box.

Matthew reaches inside the box containing 3000 bees to retrieve the cage containing the queen. Notice the white squirt bottle. It is filled with sugar water which Matthew mists the bees with while they are in the box. This accomplishes two things. 1st it feeds and calms the bees as they gorge themselves on this easy meal. And 2nd, it gets on the bees, causing them to be more concerned with cleaning themselves off than in stinging Matthew as he reaches inside the box.

This is the queen cage. The opening is blocked with a piece of hard candy which the workers take several days to eat and free the queen. By the time they free her, they associate her smell with this hive and realize it is their new home. Matthew likes to leave her captive for a little longer just to make sure this happens, so he breaks the candy out himself and stuffs the opening with a piece of bailing twine which he can pull out when he feels it is time. He puts the cage in the hive.

And pours a bunch of bees out onto the queen.

Shaking the bees out of the box onto a ramp that leads up to the hive entrance.

They begin their ascent up to the hive.

Here is another view of the bees marching into the hive to join their queen. Matthew has installed a small top super and you can see the piece of bailing twine that holds the queen captive. Matthew simply pulls the twine out when he is ready to release the queen a few days later

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Another view.

Beginning the second box of bees to install into the next hive.

Here both hives are being populated.

The bees do not usually get confused as to what hive is theirs. Bees recognize their hive by placement and color as well as smell. They do not go back and forth between hives as there are bees who’s job is to stand in the opening and fan their wings to blow the queens pheromones (smell) out of the hive so her workers will recognize this particular hive. Notice that Matthew has installed a jar of sugar water in the top honey super. He does this to feed the bees for a time until they have had a chance to gather pollen and make honey for themselves. He also leaves a few frames that contain some honey from last year in the bottom super. Another thing that Matthew does to ensure a successful transfer is to do all of this about an hour before sunset. The bees want to be in the hive before dark and this encourages them to go into it quickly. An hour later, at dusk, all the bees were safe inside their new home. It is a fascinating process to watch as Matthew works with his bees. He has studied his charges and as a result is much braver than his father who was a little nervous as I took these pictures. When a few bees were landing on my face as I tried to get into position, I would freeze up a little, more from fear than caution – I for one have no desire to “feel the energy!” Matthew on the other hand just continues to do the job.

Allen