Saturday, May 24, 2014
While I'm toiling away at work on this beautiful day, my bees were buzzily absconding to the fence between my yard and the vacant house next door. Hopefully they'll still be there when I get home from work. A beekeeper from the Northeastern Indiana Beekeepers Assoc, Ted, is coming to help me get them boxed in a new home.
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3 comments:
Why the heck would your bees want to leave the hive? I'm sorry I don't understand bees.
I think it's one of those bee fruitful and replenish the earth natural phenomenon things. They usually swarm in the spring, but will swarm later if the accommodations are too cramped. It was a real battle of the wills yesterday. A second swarm was out of the hive in the morning. The queen came out and approx half the hive with her. It was the queen that I just intalled this spring, with her blue paint dot and clipped wings (she came that way-I didn't do it) So she jumped/fell out of the hive and proceeded to go on a walkabout. I didn't have the special box called a nuc used to start a new hive so I stuck her in a honey super (not deep enough). I drove to another beekeeper friend's place to borrow a nuc and by the time I got back she and all her acolytes were out exploring again. I think I put her back in her box 5 times yesterday. Each time I had to re-suit in beekeeper attire (hot) and crawl around scooping up bees, but finally I think I've won the battle of the wills. Whew! I sold the first swarm for $100, and this one I'm waiting to see if the queen is totally wack-a-doo or not before I set a price. I thought they were swarming again this morning, but must have just been driving off an intruder. They sure did get all fussy about something, but then got over their huff and went back in. Bee keeping is always an adventure and yesterday was an all day event.
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