Bee Swarm

While Matt was at Scout Camp with Griffen I happened to look out the bonus room window to see a sheet of bees. There was nothing but massive bees as high and wide as I could see. I ended up calling the apiary and Jim told me it could possibly be a swarm.
When Matt came home from camp he checked the hives and noticed that one was definitely lacking some bees. He happened to look up and straight above his head about 30 ft. up in the maple tree were his bees.
It was a meeting of minds to figure out how to get the bees down. The Farmer's came over to assist. Matt originally tried to climb the tree, which was quite a site and made me very nervous. He couldn't get high enough so a new plan was devised. He used a fishing pole and cast the line with a heavy weight so that it would go over the branch and he could knock the swarm to the ground. After many attempts he was successful at getting the line to the correct branch.

The next step was to find the queen and get her back in the hive so that her colony would follow. On the 3rd try Matt was able to find her and get her back into the hive. After inquiring with Quinton it was decided that he should place her in a queen cage. During this venture he accidentally squish her....oh no!

Pretty little maids all in a row.

The bees are back in the hive without a queen but Matt will be adding one soon and the plan is that the colony will welcome her with open arms.