Walked out this morning to load the bicycles up so we could go for a ride. Heard that sound beekeepers hate to hear – an almost agitated buzzing. Looked over at the apiary and sure enough there was a cloud of bees swirling around over hive 6.
It’s way too late to prevent a swarm once it’s started so all I could do is watch the magic of bee colony multiplication at work. Whipped out my phone and got a video of the process.
The ladies went into the Catalpa tree, way up where I could not reach them. Thought about cutting the tree down, since I value the bees more than that tree, but that would just agitate them and make a mess in the yard. Also that tree shades the dog pen.
So what’s a beekeeper to do? I have some spare beehive parts lying around so I quickly built a hive, gave it some frames with foundation, and a square of paper with some Lemongrass oil on it to entice the ladies into moving into this luxury accommodation. Set it up on the grape arbor where its shady in the afternoon, now we wait and see if the ladies like it enough to move in. The rent’s right anyhow!
Appreciate you sharing, great post. Really thank you! Hyacinth Binky Blakelee