A hive can't swarm twice , can it...?
hmmmm....maybe they can.
Got a message from Jazmina at lunchtime that there was a swarm hanging out in the tree over the clothes line....
...got home from work about 6:30, and they were still there....
With only 2 hives, I seem to have had 3 swarms in the last 3 weeks. I don't get it. Getting sick of this, now I see why a lot of beekeeping is about swarm prevention...
circled in red below
The view from the top of the ladder....probably the diameter of a basketball, but longer...
so, I 'm in a bee-suit, I'm at the top of an extension ladder leaned on a spindly branch, I'm by myself, sawing away at a branch above my head with a bow-saw....the branch snaps and falls down in slo-mo, hingeing on where I cut it...loads of bees are shaken off, but I manage to hang on to the branch so it does not hit the ground....even so, most of the bees are by now flying around madly, and bouncing off my visor-thing. kinda dream-sequence. climb down carefully, and I get the secateurs, snip out the remaining core of bees, and drop it in the top of a spare box. One with frames and foundation below, one empty on top, just to contain them.
slowly, i coax the bees down into the comb,
helped by the smoker. I hope the queen is in there, as the others will follow wherever she is...
One of those random shots that happen when you carry a camera with gloves on in a bee-storm...
This dodgy vid shows many bees still gathering in the tree, confused that their queen is no longer up there, nowhere to be seen.
As the sun went down, all the bees made their way from the tree, the ground, from the air, and eventually made their way into the box. Next day I took off the second box, down to a single.
This could be a blessing, I can unite it with one of my suspect queen-less hives.....I certainly don't need another box in my back yard, 4 is way over the limit for a suburban block....consolidation is the key.
hmmmm.
hmmmm.
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