Sunday, March 14, 2010

The old hive swarms again

The old hive swarmed again for the sixth time. It was 11:45 am and 61 F. That makes seven swarms in total that we've had from two hives. The bees came out flew around and then merged with the bees in Alan's wooden nuc box. Easy. After the swarm I could still hear two queens in the old hive..... I'm beginning to wonder, when the bees swarm and immediately merge with another colony, whether they leave without a queen. Perhaps they are tired and just want to try and find some peace elsewhere.

Photo shows Alan's nuc box covered in bees from the swarm.

At the time of this swarm I'd placed my video camera inside the hive to try and record the sounds of the bees during a swarm. You can hear the results in this later blog.

2 comments:

  1. just got back from the latest workshop in beekeeperdom and caught up with your blog. what fantastic pictures of hive development. very instructive and very beautiful. what a saga...so many swarms and at least two merges? i knew that a hive could through of many swarms, but so many. from reading your blog it just seems like so much fun.

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  2. It has been a saga. We've had seven swarms and either we've retrieved the bees or they've done it themselves. I'm losing track of the merges but we currently only have two extra hives after all of the action. The old hive still has at least two queens inside and I have a feeling that the last swarm left without a queen. Is that possible beefiend?? All of this has been fun, but I'm beginning to wonder whether it will ever all be over.....

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