Happy Holiday Weekend!  Me? Staying home and working on many projects...from bee keeping to landscaping to planting the garden. Today is cloudy and cooler, a good time to work outdoors. 

The bee hives have swarmed 9 times now. We had 2 swarms fly away. We now have 7 hives, and we gave 2 swarms to a friend who wanted to start the hobby. All this bee swarm catching is getting to be standard practice now. 

Bee Swarms

This week we had both our bee hives swarm. We knew that this would happen because both the hives were stuffed with bees, many more than normal. The swarm above is in an apple tree. It is a huge swarm, many, many bees. We got them into a hive box after I took this pic. This swarm involved 2 ladders, and me acting like a statue with the box on my head. Pretty exciting event, however, I stayed very calm with my breathing and did not move. When bees are in a swarm, they are fairly docile and can be handled. They don't have the protective stinging action that a hive in a box does. We did not get a single sting.

This is the second swarm, two days later. This swam decided to hang on the Marion berry canes. These were so easy to capture. We just put a hive box under the swarm and dropped them into it....easy.

Oh My, 3rd Bee Swarm This Year

from Pinterest

Well my friends...the honeybees decided to swarm again...yesterday. This action shows the good vitality of the hives. There are good healthy queens, plenty of food, and are super productive. When everything is right, they swarm...it keeps the species growing.

We have been at home, and located the swarms each time. The bees will usually only go 10' to 20' from the hive to one of our dwarf apple trees. The bee yard or apiary (the fancy name) has 5 hives in it. There is no room to squeeze any more into it. I hope that the bees are done dividing, a new set-up costs about $200, and expanding the bee yard is unwanted by us. We have spent about $500 this spring to house the new hives...If there is another swarm...maybe someone we know will want it...or consider letting us keep it at their property. I wonder if the area around our farm is able to feed all these hives, maybe the flower, nectar, and pollen availability is not abundant enough.

One good thing is that our bees are pretty happy and pleasant to work with and have around the farm. :)

Honey Bee Swarm

The excitement today is that one of our honey bee hives decided to swarm. I just had finished a full day of working on the farm. I sat down outside to rest a bit, and the bees took flight. They start flying above their hive in a circular pattern. The noise of all those bees is pretty loud and noticeable.

The swarm decided to travel about 8 feet, to the nearby apple tree...and clustered on a branch in the top photo. There is no time to waste when we need to capture the swarm...get all the needed items and go to work. Did you know that bees are very docile at this time, they have no home to protect...and just want to stay with the queen. Everyone that panics about a swarm...don't do it...located a bee keeper to take the bees away.

The bottom photo is taken about 1/2 hour later, and the bees are captured and happy to have a new home. We are happy to have captured our own bees...and have a new hive.

Bee Swarm

The bees are swarming around here. A close neighbor stopped by to see us in the morning, because he had a swarm in a large birdhouse. We discussed what to do with the swarm. He was given an old bee box and frames, complete set. He went to get the free supplies and then we would assist him in the evening. Luckily, we have recently watched a video about catching swarms. and had a basic understanding of the process. The capture went off very well.

Meanwhile, on the home front, we had a hive that decided to swarm about 12 noon. They did not go far, just to the lower branches of an apple tree, about 30 feet away. It took about 20 minutes for the bees to settle into a hanging swarm like you see in the photo. We were racing around, putting together a way to capture (our own bees) them. We managed to put together a make do hive for that purpose. And....................we did it! Yes, and now we have a third hive. Early this morning we put the bees into a real hive, and now they are located in the aviary yard. The bees are not as calm as normal, I walked about 20 feet from the hives this morning..........and got stung. Ice pack, and I am fine.