Saturday, April 9, 2011

It's Just Natural

No matter how hard you look, this time of year you're bound to miss a queen cell and the hive will swarm :(The hives are busting with 'newbees' and newbees are the new nurse bees. They don't leave the hive to forage for nectar or pollen, their job is to tend the eggs and brood. They do an excellent job of it too! Sometimes they will cover up the queen cells and you just overlook them.....anyway, when that happens and the queen hatches, the older queen, even if she's less than a week old will take half the hive with her to some place new, hence a swarm.Less than five days ago we checked our home hives and culled lots of queen cells... apparently we overlooked a couple :( We were out checking hives in other locations and came home to this.
A swarm.......really, really high in the tree. A wooded area that can't be gotten to easily at all. If we were tree climbers and could shimmy up that tree, I think we would have at least tried, but we're not, so here's one for nature ;)

We had to go back through the hives to see which one swarmed because if (and they did) they have any more queen cells ready to hatch it will decimate the hive.....leaving the last few with nothing.
While going through a song came to me LOL, I hope you enjoy it or at least can appreciate it ;)

sung to the tune of "Up on the rooftop"


Up in the tree tops, Oh, so high
there is a swarm hive saying goodbye;

Oh, no, no, Where will they go?
Oh, no, no, I'd like to know!

Up in the tree tops come back home...
People will hurt you, please don't roam!

Oh, no ,no, Where will You go?
Oh, no, no, Please let me know!

Up in the tree tops saying goodbye,
hanging on a large limb, WAY too high!

I hope they make it okay.......

Until next time!
BEE looking!
Julie
Posted by NatureNut4 at 10:24 AM

4 comments:

  1. drypondApril 9, 2011 at 11:03 AM

    I like your song. I hope the bees that left find a nice safe place to call home. XXXOOO

    ReplyDelete
  2. JulieApril 9, 2011 at 11:33 AM

    Thank you Charlotte! I hope they do too!
    XXXXOOOOOO

    ReplyDelete
  3. basicliving@backtobasicliving.comApril 11, 2011 at 5:36 AM

    Your song made me smile. Very cute! Poor little bees. I hope they'll find a nice, safe home too. Have you ever had luck putting out an empty nuc near a new swarm and them making it home?

    ReplyDelete
  4. JulieApril 11, 2011 at 11:30 AM

    We haven't Penny. The swarms that we've had from our own hives have been to high in the tree to get to them let alone put a nuc near them. That is a good idea though...maybe putting a nuc above a hive just incase they swarm! The hive that swarmed last year, went to mama's hollow tree and we got them back.
    I think I might have to try out your nuc idea....thanks! ;)

    ReplyDelete

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