We are jumping on the sustainability band wagon and trying our hands at growing some of our own food. Neither of us has ever done much in the way of vegetable gardening, so this is a real experiment.
The name of this endeavor came from the meditation labyrinth it shares space with.
Wow! Two months in and Lucretia has swarmed. It's only about 10 to 12 feet off the ground on a limb. Kitty has been gone all weekend and we were sitting on the deck and she looked out and saw it. Just happened. Again, wow!
Thanks for the offer Randy, but we are going to wait and see if someone steps up who needs them. Didn't expect them to go anywhere last night. Kitty is waiting on the natural bee list response before she posts to OCBA list.
A swarm means the colony is so healthy they need more space. They make a new queen and the old one takes some of the workers and goes to a new home.
This hive was VERY crowded with bees even though there was/is still room for them to draw out more comb. Bees are pretty good at anticipating what they need to do flourish.
There are more queen cells in this hive. We're leaving them alone because the first queen to hatch usually murders her sisters, so we don't really need to do anything about those. And the new one may not have actually hatched yet.
We were seeing bees on our flowers before our packages got here, so we know there are hives nearby for the new queen to find drones to mate with.
A friend beekeeper is on his way here to catch them and take them to a bee yard on the other side of Raleigh.
Richard, if there was ever a blueprint for catching a swarm, that was it. Particularly for 2 people who had never done it before.
They went straight down into the box. Everyone finished getting settled within half an hour. Frank got them moved and set up and they've been building comb and foraging like mad ever since.
He's delighted and so are we.
Our hive seems to have settled in to get ready for the less affluent part of the year.
July and August are a slow flower period in NC. Then, we get a bump of asters in the Autumn to set them up for the winter.
They've stopped building comb, but the queens appear to be producing workers and the workers are busy in and out of the hives.
Chuck,
ReplyDeleteI've got a swarm box here and some top bars in case you would want to drop them into it? Maxed out tomorrow.
Thanks for the offer Randy, but we are going to wait and see if someone steps up who needs them. Didn't expect them to go anywhere last night. Kitty is waiting on the natural bee list response before she posts to OCBA list.
DeleteGreat pix. What's the significance of swarming? is it good, bad, clever, unfortunate, what?
ReplyDeleteLiz,
ReplyDeleteA swarm means the colony is so healthy they need more space. They make a new queen and the old one takes some of the workers and goes to a new home.
This hive was VERY crowded with bees even though there was/is still room for them to draw out more comb. Bees are pretty good at anticipating what they need to do flourish.
There are more queen cells in this hive. We're leaving them alone because the first queen to hatch usually murders her sisters, so we don't really need to do anything about those. And the new one may not have actually hatched yet.
We were seeing bees on our flowers before our packages got here, so we know there are hives nearby for the new queen to find drones to mate with.
A friend beekeeper is on his way here to catch them and take them to a bee yard on the other side of Raleigh.
Expect more pictures later :-)
Lovely swarm and beautiful pictress Hope they made a good start in their new colony.
ReplyDeleteWe're they easy to capture?
Richard, if there was ever a blueprint for catching a swarm, that was it. Particularly for 2 people who had never done it before.
ReplyDeleteThey went straight down into the box. Everyone finished getting settled within half an hour. Frank got them moved and set up and they've been building comb and foraging like mad ever since.
He's delighted and so are we.
Our hive seems to have settled in to get ready for the less affluent part of the year.
July and August are a slow flower period in NC. Then, we get a bump of asters in the Autumn to set them up for the winter.
They've stopped building comb, but the queens appear to be producing workers and the workers are busy in and out of the hives.