They did it! They swarmed a 3rd time and they attached themselves to the same tree as the other two times but moved on quickly about 5 feet further into the neighbors yard. Thankfully, after talking with the neighbors, they have been great sports about it. The bees are in a ball again about 30 feet up on a tree limb, not reachable by anyone. but that isn't my news.
Attention all beekeepers because I have a strange one for you.
We witnessed our bees swarm and then come right back shortly after. When they returned they went into the hive they orginally came out of hive #1 (the 2 yr hive). Next day they swarmed again but when we came home their clump in the tree was gone. We noticed hive #2 had an unusual number of bees. We added a third hive body Sunday and already the three boxes were overflowing with bees to the point that hubby and I started to wonder if the swarm went into the wrong hive. We debated it a while and decided that was crazy and we started brainstorming on what we should do with the new overflowing hive since the queen wasn't laying as fast as the bees were appearing (weird right) and in the 2nd hive body only 4-5 frames are drawn and in the 3rd hive body it looks like 0 are drawn. Hmmm...
What happens next? The swarm of bees emerge from the new hive (the 3 month old hive) and go right back up into the tree they swarmed to the last two times. What the heck? I'm still in shock. Is it even possible for a swarm to go back to the wrong hive?? I figure two things, that both hives have swarmed, which seems odd considering there is sooooooooo much space in the new hive for the queen to lay and she is NOT laying enough to compare with the number of bees that were inside or the bees from the first hive returned to the wrong hive.
We were fortunate to see all of this swarming. Two times from the 2 year old hive and now once from the hive we acquired in May this year.
Here is the video from the 2nd swarming:
Here is a video from when the swarm returned the first time and was scattered all over our yard:
Face it Michelle, your bees love you too much to leave home!!
Ha Ha Ha!!! My hubby would probably agree since he has been stung 4x's now and I have not. **knock on wood right :)
Thats a new one for me.. room isn't always a determining factor in swarming, sometimes if they want to swarm they swarm can't do much about it, part of nature. I would suggest you leave your hives along for a week and see what happens, eg no inspecting.
Hi Michelle, added you to my Beekeeper's blog page. We are having a July giveaway of bee note cards if you would like to drop by.
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