In which we observe the Repopulation of the Earth by Bees
I’m not feeling so great about the latest happening with our bees. One of our hives swarmed a week and a half ago (see May 29 post below). Apparently the new queen — the daughter of the old queen — didn’t like her quarters and took off with a large number of workers. I know that afterswarms aren’t uncommon, but I have to say, “Why? I wanted you to stay! I don’t want you to swarm again!”
The swarm started as a loose congregation of bees that flew up toward the top of a maple tree, about 35 feet off the ground and not far from some power lines. They didn’t have any great new home in mind already, so they clustered on the branch for the night. We had thought about trying to recapture them, but between the height of the tree, the power lines, the small diameter of the branch they were on, etc, we decided that we would be safer on the ground. We did think about shooting the branch they were on, but decided against that, too. Are we chicken? Or sensible? Anyway, we talked to our wonderful beekeeping mentors Bernie and Tim, and they were able to commiserate and make us feel better. We aren’t the only ones having a year like this. Honey is down and swarms are up.
Anyway, we kept out eye on the swarm the next day so that we could chase it when it started to move to its new home. Unfortunately, between the time that I started to make a peanut butter-honey sandwich and then take it out to the porch for Tretan, the swarm had left.
I don’t want to end on a bad note, so I’ll just mention that the three-week-old bunnies are starting to eat solid food — rabbit pellets and hay — and the four-day-old bunnies are squirming around enthusiastically in their nest box. So cute.
bee swarm leaving hive
bee swarm aloft
coalescing bee swarm