A few weeks ago, I told you that we had fully immersed ourselves in the world of bees. Meaning we got a beehive. But one is never enough, right? So in the meantime, we’ve set up a second hive, with plans to create a third hive by doing our own hive split at home, instigating a group of bees to “create” a new queen. Anyhow, that was our plan.
And then one of my staff members sent me this picture.
A swarm. A small swarm to be sure, but a swarm. And not just anywhere, but at the Nursery, in one of our Crape Myrtle Trees.
Like the Ghostbusters taking their first call, Kim and I sprang into action. Actually, our theme song (I decided) is Riders on the Swarm, so that is what we sang on the way to the Nursery.
What are the odds? We’ve never seen a swarm in our yard, in a park, or at the Nursery in 40+ years. I did landscape underneath a rather large swarm years ago, but that’s it. And now when we actually have a fledgling bit of know-how and the materials needed to do a removal, we found one. Quite coincidental.
So we hopped in the car, smokers in hand, and headed to capture the swarm. It was just a little beard of bees, and they all seemed young. I had images of us scooping away at the bees, filling box after box, eyes racing to find the queen. It was way less dramatic than that. With a couple of snips, we cut the branch off the tree, and the bees stayed together, with only a few flying off.
We laid the branch down in the box we’d brought, rotated it a few times and actually found the queen! Unfortunately, as Kim tried to get a picture of the queen (no easy task with a bee suit, gloves, and veil on), the queen buzzed off. Apparently, she did not want her picture taken, and she sped off back towards the tree she had swarmed to and then to a tree beyond. We kept sort of spotting her, and since my hands likely had her scent on them, I kept close to where the group of bees were. We were about to give up completely when we spotted the queen again, on the cart right next to the box. Some gentle nudging got her back into the box, and we sealed the swarm up.
At home, we set up a new hive, complete with a honey frame to give the bees some food. And throughout the afternoon and evening we saw individual bees coming in and out of the hive, slowly learning how to get into it.
I wish that this story had a fairytale ending and that we now had a new queen laying eggs like crazy, but unfortunately the next morning, queen and swarm were gone. A few stragglers were all that remained. We were suspicious that she wasn’t a mated queen since she had been pretty nimble in flight at the nursery, so it may be that she was on a mission. We’re still keeping our eyes out around the yard to see if the little swarm is anywhere near, but we realize that’s wildly unlikely. But we got to have some fun. We captured a swarm, and now, the next time one appears, Riders on the Swarm will be ready.
P.S. We’re coming up on our special summer solstice yoga session: 108 Sun Salutations. This class is FREE, we’d love for you to join us at 7:30 am on Saturday, June 22. Click the image to register.
