Sunday, July 14, 2013
Swarm of bees at our farm
Lucky for us Age phoned us in town that he had seen a swarm next to one of our hives at our farm.
It looked like a fairly large swarm and likely came out of the hive that was situated right next to it. We were fortunate that they had landed in a small tree.
Bert took a hive box up the ladder and shook the branch enough that a lot of the bees dropped into the box. Many others were flying at the time and so they gathered at the same spot on the branch and then Mary's uncle, who happened to be visiting, was brave enough (or should I say trusting enough) to help Bert while they shook the branch again into a smaller hive box. This was repeated again with Bert shaking the branch once again and that seemed to do the trick.
Bert then put the two boxes side by side and since the queen was in the original big box that was first used the others in the smaller box all moved in there. So now we have another hive!
Jacob, Max and Danika were there to watch as well as Mary, Monique and Sonja.
Max loves the smell of honey!!
A good time to learn about beekeeping for the boys.
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2 comments:
Wow, great pictures; I am glad you got the bees back - was there a new queen in the swarm?
Elizabeth
Yes, the old queen from the hive leaves with the swarm. The hive should have a new queen made either just before the swarm leaves or shortly thereafter. But this slows everything down in the old hive since the new queen will have to fly out and get fertilized and then it will take approximately three weeks before new bees have hatched from this new queen.
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