The up-side-down plastic pails on the right are full of sugar water. They're sitting on some twigs to keep them raised up a bit from the frames. Teeny tiny holes in the lids allow the bees to stick in their cute little tongues and lap up sugar water. Today I will don my hazmat outfit and make a proper visit, removing frames, searching for the Queen and new brood, and refilling the pails if they are empty. Also will look for signs of mites.
My 89 classmates in the beekeeping class, along with the several hundred members of the Montgomery County Beekeepers Association, have a listserve where they chatter about bee issues. Lots of people have had swarms this spring. I have such mixed feelings about swarms. It's a sign of bee health BUT it's also a sign that your bees want a new home.
Swarming, as defined by Wikipedia, is:
... the natural means of reproduction of honey bee colonies. A new honey bee colony is formed when the queen bee leaves the colony with a large group of worker bees, a process called swarming. In the prime swarm, about 60% of the worker bees leave the original hive location with the old queen. This swarm can contain thousands to tens of thousands of bees. Swarm clusters [often] hang... off of a tree branch.
And here's how Wikipedia describes managing a swarm:
There are various methods to capture a swarm. ...One method that can be employed on a sunny day when the swarm is located on a lower branch or small tree is to put a white sheet under the swarm location. A nuc box is put on the sheet. The swarm is sprayed from the outside with a sugar solution and then vigorously shaken off the branch. The main cluster, hopefully including the queen, will fall onto the white sheet and the bees will quickly go for the first dark entrance space in sight, which is the opening of the nuc. An organized march toward the opening will ensue and after 15 minutes the majority of bees will be inside the nuc.
"Organized march"---don't you just love that?
3 comments:
I remember being terrified as a child when I encountered a swarm of bees on a tree branch. Now, I envision shaking that mass of bee bodies. . . the seven-year-old in me shakes in fear, and the grown-up loves it!
Thanks for sharing your bee experiences!
Don't think of swarming as not liking the old home, but as being rich enough to buy a place in the country!
Your girls look good! Glad they are settling in.
I did my first harvest today. Boy, did they get mad! Partly because I was being slow and tentative. But I took a couple of bars and got a goodly amount of honey. Plus one sting that was my fault for taking the veil off before I was done.
P.S. I have a honey bee fan page on Facebook, if you're on there:
Honey Bees
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