Bee Swarm

Not sure if you can see the picture well but this is half of one of our hives of honey bees, they decided they wanted some new digs. What an afternoon that was.  The neatest part of the whole story I wasn't able to catch with my camera. 

I was canning chicken broth and stepped outside to check on our garlic bulbs when I heard, what I thought was a large number of flies.....that was until I looked up and discovered the bees in flight. I ran into the house to tell my son who takes care of the bees.  They finally settled about 25 feet up in one of the cedar trees we have in the back yard.  Not a very convenient place to get to them.  By that time my husband and other son were rousted and we were all gathering new frames and materials needed to try and capture them. My husband was not real excited about our son climbing a ladder that high to get the swarm.  We began to pray and with in 10 minutes the bees swarmed away from the cedar and ended up on the fence post in this picture.  How cool is that?

 

This is a picture of my son dumping the  bees into their new home.  My husband was lending a helping hand, yes dressed like that!   I guess the biggest issue with a swarm is to try and get the queen without injuring her when you gather the bees.  She gives off a scent that attracts the bees to her. So if you get the queen the other bees just go where she is. Sounds easy but I'm glad it wasn't me doing the dumping.

In the following pictures the bees are being dumped in front of the hive (on a white sheet) where they are marching up the sheet and into their new home.............because the queen is in there.  In the last picture you can see only a few bees left on the sheet.

 

The bees are settled into their new home and have drawn out their comb.  They are busy making honey for winter.  We have had to feed them to get them started and are bummed about not getting much honey this year but we do have another hive. Now to prepare them for and to get them through winter.

 

Makes me think of the old adage, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch".  Such is farm life, you never know what your going to get.  Makes me appreciate the times of plenty, the times of beauty, and the times of wonder even more. Oh, and where there are losses there will be gains in other areas.