Swarms

On a sleepy Independence Day Monday evening, I responded to a swarm alert at the home of two local artists, Becky Evans and Bob Benson. The cluster was nice & big, perhaps 4 pounds, and relatively easy to gather. Becky took some photos of the process, and kindly sent me copies. In a quick check of the hive two days later, I found some eggs. Here's hoping the queen continues to be a winner.



A few days before, I'd joined my beek friend Joy in gathering a swarm near my house. Joy didn't want the swarm, so I got it. Getting bees off the base of a rose bush is not easy. We may have injured the queen, because when I saw her, I found a dent in her abdomen, and a tag of "skin" hanging off it. She seemed lively enough, but there were no eggs after a few days. I trimmed the "skin", in case it prevented her from sticking her abdomen into cells and laying eggs. Here's hoping she is also a winner.

Joy also let me have a swarm from one of her hives, but she has right of first refusal if I find a marked (recently purchased) queen in there.

Overall, the queen situation is improving. Some of this spring's young queens are doing well, and I'm waiting on a couple more. I think I have nine hives right now, though three of these are nucs. After all the queen trouble this spring, I want to hoard as many queens as I can until after harvest.

The hives are filling nicely with nectar, and mature honey is getting capped. I'm hoping for at least a couple of boxes of honey to harvest in August.

12 July Update:
The Evans/Benson swarm is doing very well. They have four frames well filled with eggs and larvae. The queen is very long and a beautiful espresso color. Now that she's proven herself, I have named her Rebecca, after Ms. Evans.

Sadly, the rosebush queen is no more. I fear my intervention did more harm than good. I found a small patch of brood right after trimming her (of course), but now there is no new brood. Her followers will be combined with another hive today.

The queen from Joy's swarm does not appear to be her recently bought one. This one is unmarked, and hasn't started laying yet. She's a blond Italian beauty. I hope she has mated well, and will be laying soon so she can earn a name.