Ughh...

This is my third summer tending bees. I only have two hives and would love to expand my apiary when I feel I can properly manage the two hives I have. This year I have loosely followed Cornell’s beekeeping schedule and have felt like I have a good handle on things. Until today…

One of my hives swarmed. Ughh. I have no idea why they felt the need to leave the hive. To make matters worse, I prepared to catch the swarm, but the girls decided to take off before Eric (DH) got home to help. Time from swarm to new location was only 3 hours. I didn’t get any pictures of this swarm, but here’s some pictures from last year:


Please click for a larger image (and the full effect)…

We attempted to catch that swarm as well, but the queen flew away in the process and the others followed shortly after.

Going... going... gone.
It is instinct for bees to swarm as a means of reproduction. When a hive swarms, the queen and a large percentage of the worker bees leave to find a new hive. The original hive is left to raise a new queen (and replace all of the workers it lost).

1 comment:

Heather said...

Hello! I saw on Ravelry that you are in Wiscasset (as I was wandering around the country clicking on map pins) and I spent a lot of summers there (well, more Woolrich... my dad lived near the grange / flea market there on Route 1 during the early mid 80s).

Anyhow, I ended up here on your blog and am much impressed with your bees.

Happy knitting and such to you!