I saw a swarm forming or so I thought...it never made a cluster. It moved right into the bee equipment in the shed. I should have shut the door this morning when I saw it open, huh? ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) Swarm ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) Moving on in... ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) Now, I am dressing to go out and move them into a different home. I'll try to get you a few pics. It is hard to do it when you are working by yourself though.
It looks as though those bees know a good place when they see it. Fingers crossed you can move them to a new home without too much trouble ... and without being stung. Good luck.
Carolyn, when the bees seek you out as their new hostess/landlady, you must be doing something right! Hope your bees settle in and start carrying pollen.
WHOA!! I sure do enjoy the fruit of their labor (honey)...I usually eat around 3-4 tablespoons of fresh honey per day, sometimes more. It's delicious!! :-D It helps keep my blood pressure in check...until I eat something I shouldn't. :-?
Jerry, I have no idea if they are our bees or from the neighbor down the road. They didn't give me their previous address before squatting here. But that's ok since they are contributors and not consumers only. I know there is a bee tree in the woods so I went to get you a picture... bee tree ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) Jane, ,Eileen and Deepwoods, Thanks. They are fascinating little creatures. I'll post the next phase after dinner. I have to go now.
I know bees are good... and honey is great... but I'd have been screaming and running if I saw that many bees at once!
Okay..it is now after supper and here is the rest of the story... I was really blessed. I went to get the bees out of the shed and here they had found an empty hive, not quite together, but they didn't mind. ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) I am assuming, because I didn't blow on the mound to see, that the queen was there being groomed and fed and taken care of. If you look closely the light catches the bulge of bees close to the low center of the frame. They were in three different boxes, but they needed only 2 of them. One was not compatible with the other two ( which was why it was there) So I moved the frames of bees from the "wrong box" to the other box. At this point they are very easy to work with and the frames are very light. there is nothing in them yet. They bring all their stores (honey) with them as they move out of the old place and into the new one. There are bees of all ages in a swarm. Each "age" has a different job, newly emerged bees produce royal jelly for the queen or brood, there are bees that forage, bees that guard the entrances, bees that clean...all according to their age. They can do anything as needed if there is a huge disruption in the hive, except produce royal jelly, I think that is only something the new bees can do. This is a particularly large swarm. I don't normally use two boxes(hive bodies) to house a swarm. This one filled two boxes in the shed, So I gave them all that and added a honey super at the end of the day, too. ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) The queen must have landed on the bagger of the mower and left her pheromone on the plastic, they were there all day. I finally started the mower and moved it out of the shed. Which was a little stressful because I couldn't tell if there were any bees on my backside before I sat down to start it Thankfully there were none. ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) This glob of dirty cotton is actually the nemesis of all bee keepers, Wax Moths! The one hive body in the shed had a lot of damage inside due to our very warm winter. They destroy all the wax in the frames and make it unusable for the bees. ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden )
Wow! That is all very interesting. Thanks for sharing the info. If I see bees...I go in the opposite direction. Kudos to you for taking care of them.
Terry, a swarm is very calm, I was going to say quiet, but that isn't quite accurate, they are very loud, it sounds like a deep droning hum... You can hear it easily 100' away. They are quiet in the sense that they aren't buzzing your head and checking out your perfume, deoterant, fabric softener, etc. They have nothing to defend so they aren't trying to keep you from getting their stores. You can walk right through a swarm and they may land on you but they are only resting. no worries about being stung unless you accidentally pinch one.
I'd never make a bee keeper! So glad that there's other folks that do that job. Very interesting though.... from the safety of my computer room. :-D
A question for clarification: when you say that the bees needed two boxes is that two boxes(one hive) i.e. a box on top of another. Or do you mean the quantity of bees needed two separate hives. In that case do they become estranged and need two separate queens?. Jerry
Jerry, When a swarm forms, they have left home to establish a new colony. They have no stores in their new digs.no honey, no pollen, nothing. Typically, here are not enough bees in a swarm to to need they size of hive they came from. When we house a new swarm we usually use one deep and when that one looks to have some stored up pollen in it and some capped honey, we add a second hive body. What is put on after that are supers for honey stores, which is the surplus and we get that. ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) This is a typical size for an established hive.
Wow great info thanks for sharing carolyn. I would love to try beekeeping but cant at our current location to residential. Its a good job you didn't store your beekeeping clothes in the shed out of interest do the bees stay in the hives through the winter? or do they migrate back in the spring
