Something to buzz about

The swarm of Italian honeybees left their hive on Water Street in search of a new home.

Observers of the swarm thought at first it was a bear in a tree when they noticed the big black mass hanging of one of the branches of a nearby fruit tree.

Beekeeper, Rodney Dillinger, says swarms are quite common for beekeepers.

“A swarm, although may look very ugly, is not that bad,” he explains.

Dillinger was in church that Sunday and was unaware of the 40,000 runaway bees.

“Normally I will go up a tree and catch them with that box,” he says pointing to a cardboard box with pinholes poked through, “I hold the box under the swarm, take a hold of the branch and give it a good shake.”

By the time, Dillinger reached his supers that had held the bees they were long gone with their queen at the centre.

According to Dillinger, swarms will happen when conditions are not right in a beehive. They solve the problem by creating a new queen by placing royal jelly into the cell and turning a female worker bee into a queen.

The new queen will then take half the colony with her and take flight in pursuit of a new hive.

Dillinger went to the Shelburne RCMP to report the missing colony and laughs as he recalls their surprised reaction.

“I don’t think they heard that one before,” he says.

He has been beekeeping with as many as 35 hives but over the years has brought down the number to four and continues the hobby for the love of it.

Dillinger picks up an object similar to an oilcan and begins breezing out puffs of smoke through the nozzle, directly around his hives.

“They react to smoke like they react to a forest fire,” he says as he keeps the bees at bay.

Smoke in small doses will protect him from being stung by causing a large number of the bees to gorge themselves with honey and therefore lose their aggression.

The swarm of bees that recently vacated their hives had packed themselves full for the journey before leaving and the same consequences will be observed during their flight.

Dillinger lifts off the lid to the boxed beehive and pulls out a frame filled with bees, honey comb and of course honey.

Dipping his finger to dig out some of the gooey golden substance he says, “that’s the freshest honey and the best you’ll ever taste.”

The medium sized hive will produce around 40 pounds of what Dillinger calls ‘some-good honey’.

He got into beekeeping years ago when his oldest son who was allergic to bees at the age of 12 saved up and brought home an entire set of beekeeping supplies, without his parent’s permission.

“I couldn’t deny him because of his initiative so I had to get involved,” he explains.

His son never got over his allergy and had to finally give them up and so it was left to Dillinger to continue.

His protégé, George Mackay, began assisting Dillinger close to two years ago, as half of his hives are placed on his land.

He explains how the situation works well as the bees pollinate his huge garden and the bees receive both their protein and carbohydrates alike in order to produce their honey.

Dillinger hopes he will be able to get his missing bees back and encourages people to contact the police if they spot them.