This morning I noticed some odd behaviour around the bee hives...
A lot more action than usual and the buzzing was akin to the noise at a World Cup soccer game.
There's a big cherry tree close to the hives and as I took a closer look, I noticed this...
A swarm about 5 feet long.
This is what happens when the hive gets too crowded, so they breed a new queen and the old one leaves with the first batch of her kingdom.
Swarms of honey bees are NOT aggressive and are only concerned with staying where the queen is.
Unfortunately if the apiarist is not able to come straight away, the swarm may be gone.
That was the case today.
After about an hour I noticed the same activity above the hives and went to have a look at the front of the bee yard...this is what I saw...
The hives are definitely prolific and getting crowded so Bob will come in the morning to add more boxes.
The good news is that there will be LOTS of honey this year!
Anybody for a bee beard?
1 comment:
Aren't they gorgeous? I love bees, and I'm lucky enough to have an apiarist just 3 houses down from me! Not that he's at all nice about sharing his honey, (or nice about anything else for that matter) but I still get the benefit - and joy - of watching the bees in my garden!
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