Frank,

Brings a new meaning to honey tasting figs. LOL
I can't see what all the buzz it about? Just bee careful.

Frank,

In all seriousness you can try to find a local honey/bee farmer to come and pick them up.

I remember way back in the 70's when I used to live in Detroit there was a neighbors tree that had very similar issues.
Someone called a bee farmer from the area and brought with him some stuff in a box( just can't remember what)and they all followed the queen in it in within a couple of hours.

It wasn't a long process at all.

Note to self... another 2 reasons not not live in Florida

Rich,
  Last time I looked, we had both SUVs and bees up here in NJ!!! ;-)

Frank,
  I'm breaking out in hives just looking at your pictures. 

  I remember a similar swarm in my front yard (in NJ) when I was a kid.  They were only staying around temporarily while looking for a new home, and they were gone within a day.

Jim

If you can find a bee hive service they will probably pay you for them, I know the queens are quite valuable and there is certainly a queen in there.

what the heck is that? i know they are bees... but, what makes them swarm like that?

Pete,

They had too much bee'r

That is so cool!

About a year ago a swarm tried to settle in the concrete water meter in the front yard. I had not noticed it, but the meter reader did. They called a bee service, and they put some sort of box next to it to lure the queen and/or bees into it. It didn't take very long at all. I think it was set up for a day or so. I called the water company to make sure they weren't destroyed, and they said that they go to good homes, or something like that. Too important these days to just kill.

Pete,

Sometimes a hive gets too big and splits.  Sometimes the bees are no longer happy where they are and leave.  Sometimes the food supply dries up and they leave.  In the center of that mass is the queen and they are just looking for a new home and decided to take a break at Franks lol.

Time to move!!

It's hard to believe, but bees are most docile when they're swarming. I wish I lived closer, that's a treasure to a beekeeper. They actually make vacuums you can use to suck up the bees. If they settle on a branch, you can just shake them into a box. Your local beekeeping club I'm sure will run right over and get them.

Great info, everyone. I might even come out of this with a little cash for eBay cuttings.

Rafed, you have outdone yourself with bee-isms tonight. Lol.

Poor things... they need a home. I wish I had a bee hive at the back side of my backyard. Until spring-simmer of 2012 the bees used to drop dead in our backyard as we were outside at daytimes... No one knew why, they were going one by one...But last summer and this year we are noticing a strong comeback, our apple trees are a living testimonials to their hard work. I have never seen our Dorset and Anna produce this much apples senselessly...I might need to thin out about 60-70% of them to get decent size apples from this trees. when it rains it pours. 2 summers ago the Dorset had only 8 apples, and Anna had 2. Fuji is a different story altogether, We call her a moody B. she is still dormant! Does anyone know if it's worth to have a bee hive far at the end of the backyard, since I have 2 kids and cat and oh yeah...a wife too... would the bees be safe? no...LOL. would we be safe..

Aaron - in my area (Vancouver, BC Canada), mason bees are great for pollinating apple trees. They are solitary, and rarely sting. Each female is a queen that lays eggs. It's quite easy to raise mason bees.

@willwall, yeah... I have heard of them, i even watched few youtube vids... so, they always come back to their houses, which are just tubes put together?

Aaron - Yes. The key is to use clean tubes every year. Otherwise, parasite build-up will occur, and bee population will collapse. You can buy ready-to-use tubes, or roll your own.

Possibly, time to get into a very useful/interesting honey bee keeping hobby ...

Just call a beekeeper and they'll be happy to pick them up! I was born and raised in California, but moved to Hong Kong for work and there's a beekeeper here that's been keeping since the 80's. When he first came, he searched around Hong Kong for a site and then he picked where to lived based on the flora around him. I tried his winter honey a year ago and I can honestly say it is the best honey I've ever tasted--almost like lychees. 

He also taught me some beekeeping and the crazy thing is, we didn't wear any protection or use smoke! The secret is to be calm and the bees wont feel threatened. When I first saw him handle the bees I thought he was mad, but when I saw how nice they were, I was amazed. 

Wasps and hornets though.... BURN THEM!

Frank, What a great experience. Someone is going to get a wonderful gift. Bees are really docile during a move (swarm) so you should be able to get some great photos and I'm waiting to see the pics. thx.


For Mason bees I just take a piece of firewood and my drill with a 5/8th bit and drill a bunch of 4 to 10 inch holes. They love this and I just then throw back on wood pile when they are finished. This, I find easier and more attractive, and I also put a wire cage on the front to keep woodpeckers and other "bee candy" shoppers away. These blocks need to be close to food - no more then 300 feet away and they need a source of mud.
Also remember there are tons of other pollinators that need the same attention but different size holes. The last time I looked up this info I remember honey bees were only doing 15% of the work so we need to think about all our pollinators.

oh , i like the drilled wood idea, so natural looking, so...do I place it on the tree I want pollination? or anywhere -like under a pal cony roof or a fence hole? We have a lot of fence lizard, would they bother the Mason Bees? wow, allofasudden my mind is all over the place imagining my garden with MBs, LOL

the fence   the fence lizard 

Hi always a beautiful sight ... In the garden of the others :), not in mine .
although I wouldn't panic.
 Here we call the "firemens" and they come or send you a beekeeper .
If you want to make them fly away - perhaps to another of your trees :) ... - just make smoke under that position ( smoke but not fire) and they will fly away.
They are committed to fly away in case of signs of fire ...
Butterflies are some other good pollinators . Last weekend a mason bee was inspecting my garden small house. I have wood all around for insects - hoping for the best and not for the worsts !

Buy a hive box and you'll have as much honey as you want after a few years.

Play them a song from the Bee Gees

Sometimes the shape of a bee's head resembles the shape of a fig:
http://www.eyedesignbook.com/ch3/fig-3-13b-hon-beeBG.jpg
 

And then there's the Honey Bee and Fig Tea Punch recipe:
http://veevlife.com/recipe/acai-honey-bee/

You're reminding me of a time when I was a kid, when there were about 40 or 50 hives swarming in the neighborhood.  Many of the adults were fearful (the kids thought it was great), but the bees just stayed a couple of days and then left.

Too bad about the SUV hit, Frank.

Mike