Got Bees? Meet a Swarm Chaser Up for the Challenge | Short Film Showcase

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Hello! Oh gosh, do you have some bees? Okay, so are the bees outside? Are they hanging on a tree, or like, where are the bees at? You know, as a child, I spent a lot of time crafting and making miniatures. I think that that ties in because I like to look at things in great detail, and I pay very close attention to what's happening in my garden and what's happening with the bees. It's all like zooming in and looking at them closely.

I tell you what, if you could just send me a photograph, like text me a picture of the area, then we all have a general idea of what to bring with me to get them. And then text me the address—I can head right over. Beekeeping came into my life at a time where I was transitioning from being a career woman to a stay-at-home mom, and I was really looking for an extra level of fulfillment and something for myself that I could really dive into, other than, you know, raising my kids. [Music]

So, I started keeping mason bees, which are little native bees that are very easy to keep. But I loved it so much, and my fascination for bees continued to grow. I started studying honey bee keeping, and I'd been studying for about a year when a swarm of honey bees landed in my front yard. That was the moment when I realized that I needed to take the leap and become a beekeeper. [Music]

When they're swarming, like what you're seeing right now, they're actually pretty calm and gentle. So you guys can just stand back. I would not think of them as a risk right now. You know, once they land in a spot, they'll stay there for a little while.

All right, since I... the most rewarding and unexpected thing about beekeeping has been becoming connected to so many new people and this wonderful beekeeping community that we have. There's the connectivity to nature, and being able to share my enjoyment of bees with other people, I think, is kind of infectious. That's part of my mission—to spread that joy of living with these.

I love swarm catching; I call myself a swarm chaser because I clear my schedule during the springtime. I'm waiting for swarm calls to come in. They could either just die off, or if the queen's not in the hive, some of the worker bees will get the idea to start laying eggs. But none of their eggs are fertile, and it's a bad situation when that happens. The queen is really vital to their health.

Every time I go on a swarm call, I learn something new. Even though, you know, my skills at collecting swarms are improving, I just love that sense of adventure. Something new is going to happen, you're going to meet new people, you get to tell people about the bees. So, I don't know, I guess every swarm is kind of crazy.

I should've warned you that was going to happen. So the bees at the bucket are using their homing pheromone, and so that will signal to the others that the colony has moved to a different spot. In time, everybody will get the message, and they'll go to the bucket. These ones right here—I mean every bee right here is fanning. Even the ones in here are doing it.

Best bee scooping tool ever! When they've outgrown their space, and if they're healthy, they will prepare to leave by making new queens. When those queens are ready to hatch, the old queen will leave with about half of the workers, and then they'll set up a new hive in a different location.

So, a swarm is like this—they haven't decided to make this their home; they're just in transit. It's a resting point for them. This is my other tool for getting swarms that are really high up in the air, and this extends to 15 feet. So I brought this with me thinking, well, you know, they're high up. I might need to use this, but I'm glad that I didn't have to use it because this is a lot of work.

Oh, best outcome! They'll all go to the box, and then I'll come back in the morning. They'll all be in the bucket, and then I can take them to their new hive. [Applause]

These are important because they're not only an indicator species of what is happening in our environment. They also are the backbone of our food chain. They're not just supplying food for humans; they're supplying food for birds and critters that feed off the plants that they pollinate. So without the bees, there is no us—there is no ecosystem. They're that critical to our environment.

I don't know how to convey that in a way that, like, spells out just how freaking important they are. [Music] [Music]

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