June has just begun and the weather is starting to heat up. Last month in May, the weather was abnormally cool and wet, which was a welcome surprise. We need as much rain as we can get! But with the cold and rain last month also came an abrupt slow down in bee activity. In other words, business has been slow for the past month.

So what’s a business to do when it has extra time on it’s hands? How about prepare for a better tomorrow? We here at Bee Best Bee Removal did just that by setting up a bee transfer station that will reduce bee loss out at the bee clinic.

So how does setting up a tent create a better tomorrow? To understand that you need to understand how the clinic worked before the tent.

You see the bee clinic is the place where we take our wild swarms after a removal job. Sometimes we brush the bees into a temporary box. Other times we use the Hive Savers Bee Vacuum. Once we have captured the bees we bring them to the clinic, find an empty hive box, and pop them into a box. It looked like this:

So that was the old way. It works okay, but one of the challenges with the old system was that often the swarms would take flight.  But now we have taken it up a notch, thanks to Quentin Alexander of Hive Savers.

So what are we doing differently? Well instead of simply dumping the bees into the box, we now use a tent and a special ramp that encourages the bees to go to the box on their own. Before, when we transferred bees the old way, we chose the box the bees went into.

Why is that important? Well, It’s sorta psychological. If the queen and her followers choose to go into the box, (instead of being placed there) they are more likely to stay. In short, this new method reduces bee loss. Less bee loss makes for a healthier apiary, and a healthier apiary makes a better tomorrow.

So without further adieu, we are proud to present the following video which documented the set up of the Bee Transfer Station in El Cajon.

We would like to thank Quentin Alexander of Hive Savers for helping us create and put together the Bee Transfer Station. Its a replica of the one he created at the Bee Ranch up in Encinitas. To see that transfer tent in action, take a look at the Earth Day special which was shot out there earlier this year.