Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SYRACUSE — A swarm of bees caught a northern Utah family by surprise when it buzzed in and set up shop in the yard in just minutes.
“I just thought it was crazy,” Joanna Plant laughed as she explained what happened.
The family was setting up a picnic when the bees set up for lunch.
“We came back and the kids were just yelling, ‘Mom!, Dad! Come here!'” Plant said. “We came to the back door, we looked in our backyard and it was swarming bees, everywhere!”
She said the swarm swelled and “within 30, 40 minutes they had all swarmed and made this big hive — it was nuts!”
Beekeeper Rodeny Marchant came to the rescue with a vacuum to suck up all the bees and so he can relocate them.
“They’ll be in a hive. And if the hive gets too small for the amount of bees that are in there, the worker bees will actually stop feeding the queen so that she’ll be able to lose weight and be able to fly long distances," Marchant said, as he explained what likely caused the swarm.
Marchant is one of about 45 beekeepers in Davis County who shows up to collect swarming bees.
He said a quarter or more of the bees will leave to form a new hive, calling the trampoline a temporary staging area.
He said it’s a good thing the Plant family called for help quickly.
“Hopefully we catch them at that stage, because if we don’t catch them, that’s when they move into the soffits of houses, or they move into walls, or they move into somebody’s shed,” he said.
He said if they move into one of those areas, it’s a lot tougher to get them out.
Not all the bees are gone. Some scout bees are still trying to play on the trampoline.
“We do need to get a bigger trampoline, so we can get rid of it,” Plant giggled.
“Perfect excuse,” her daughter Brooklyn agreed.
With so many kids stuck at home, a replacement may be hard to find.
For now, they will just have to stay patient and stay safe.
