Animals

Swarm! (Another Adventure in Beekeeping)

Someone once commented that my life is anything but boring.

I would have to agree with that.

It seems that every day brings some sort of adventure.

Yesterday afternoon was quite exciting...

heart-pounding exciting!

Shortly before I was ready to go out for afternoon feeding time,

I received a phone call from our friend Sam.

(We have two friends...Sam and Jim who help us out with the mowing.)

Sam called to tell me that earlier that afternoon,

as he was mowing the apple orchard,

he noticed a swarm of bees in the orchard.

Wasting no time, I hopped in the gator, and drove to the

bee garage, where I suited up and grabbed supplies.

I then went to my lower bee yard and got a new

hive box ready.

Then I headed to the orchard to check out the swarm.

This is what I saw...

thousands of bees clumped together on an apple tree branch.

I shook the branch and knocked most of the bees into a large

cardboard box. I then covered the box and drove it down

to the lower bee yard. Here I shook the bees into the new hive.

Then back to the orchard to cut down the limb that had the remaining

swarm attached to it.

I walked this limb down the lane to the hives and shook the

remaining bees into the hive.

One more trip back to the orchard to gather those bees that had been

flying and were now gathered in a cluster....

At this point, most of the bees were now in their new hive box.

I will check them tomorrow to see if they stayed there.

If there is a queen amongst the group

(hopefully she made the transfer with the rest of the bees)

they will all remain with her...attracted to the hive by her

pheromones.

I can only hope she is there.

As a result, I will have a brand new hive.

Swarming is a natural occurence in a bee colony. The colony builds up its

numbers and hatches a new queen. That new queen then takes half of the

colony and sets out to find a new home.

This is a natural process of hive reproduction.

If you are lucky enough to find a your swarm...

you can end up with another hive.

Otherwise the hive goes wild and finds another place to live

such as a hollow tree, or your neighbors, barn, or attic.

Catching a swarm and installing into a new hive is most

definitely the better choice.

As you said....never a dull moment here!

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