To Swarm or Not To Swarm..

The long weekend brought about tons of busy farm activities, but most exciting were the bees.  We had two hives survive our frigid winter and though both are strong, one in particular is massive.  B has done a ton of research and as a result our beekeeping friend has been working this winter on a Perone hive for us.  We were concerned about the hive swarming and have been waiting anxiously for the new one to be done so that we could try to transition this particular hive into the new larger system.  Though we were hosting our Tastebuds dinner club on Memorial Day, when B got the call that the hive was done, he raced out to get it (a 3 hour round trip).  Timing is everything as they say and when I moseyed out to the garden to pick some rhubarb for a simple syrup the air was alive with a hummmmm.

When I looked over I panicked.  It appeared that the hive was getting ready to swarm.  Darn it!  The bees went from covering the hive for about 15 minutes to bearding at the bottom.  The humming decreased  and then several minutes later the beard had reduced by 2/3.  I did not hear the airplane like sound of a swarm leaving, but I felt it looked suspect.  While with our friend, they engaged the help of another beekeeper, the gentlemen whom we occasionally purchase queens from.  He settled our fears some as there can be a number of reasons for the sight that I saw.

~  Our day was turning out to be our warmest of the season, and incredibly humid.  It is not unusual for bees, in high humidity, to exit the damp hive and air out, then return in.

~  We know that the brood chamber was overflowing.  This sudden appearance, then disappearance of bees can be a result of a large simultaneous hatch.

~  There could have been two vigorous queens and we had a small swarm with one of them.

When B returned home with the new hive, he immediately suited up and added the new larger hive below our Warre boxes.  Within hours the hive was calm and back to business as usual.

We do not for certain know what happened, but based on visual appearance we lost only a small swarm, if we lost one at all.   What a way to get the adrenaline going just before Tastebuds!

What a Ride

There is such a delicate balance to nature.  Even with the most conscientious of care, it can be hard to predict which things will thrive, fail, or endure the slimmest of odds.  It can be all at once disheartening and uplifting, and we find that as we nurture different things, we become very connected to them.

Most days we walk the homestead three times, early morning, mid day and evening.  We peruse the garden, check the bees, plan for future crops or animals, let the chickens out into the yard, harvest, water, pet the bunnies, weed pull, dream, and simply enjoy.

There are ups and downs to this process, because we will notice even slight changes that lead us to investigate and sometimes worry.  Both of our bee hives have been vigorous all spring, so much so that we had to add an additional box to each of them.  This week we had slowly warming weather, then a sudden very warm day.  I noticed that one of our hives had a large number of bees congregating outside, and some beginning to beard there.  This sent me into a little bit of a panic.  Are they going to swarm?  Are they unhappy in their home?  Are they just too warm from this crazy weather and getting some air?  We watched them carefully over the last couple of days and they are hanging in there.  This morning B noticed that the other hive seems to have many fewer bees, and we wonder whether this hive swarmed.  This second hive though robust,  has not been nearly as active as the other.  Maybe it lost its queen, and they are in the process of making a new queen.   It could be the other just had a huge brood hatch and by comparison it looks much more populous.  It looks like we will be examining the boxes in more depth to see if we can see a problem, or detect a new queen cell. So many possibilities, one of which is hives sometimes just swarm, period.  We will be setting out our bait hives this weekend, hopefully looking to catch a wild swarm, and not one of our own!

There is something about relying on mother nature that is very rewarding and humbling.  Hard work can be rewarded or punished by such simple things when you are relying on the elements and ecosystem around you.  But wow, what a ride!

 **Update.  After I posted this B spoke with our bee keeper friend who is very seasoned and been doing this for many years.  It seems we anticipated everything right, and it would be unusual for one warm day to cause a sudden swarm, especially since this hive was not the one with the excess of bees.  He thinks it sounds more like a mass die off due to some contamination/poison.  It happens these days.  We will inspect the hive this weekend to see if there is still a queen, and if the numbers continue to die off.  It leaves me sad, this was not necessarily mother nature, it was man made.  Big Ag may have created crops and insecticides to increase yields, and make for cheap hybrids (where the nutrition has all but been removed; ie. today's grains).  But I wonder what the true cost will be?  We already see effects in the health of the natural ecology.   The long term health effects to humans is yet to be seen, though I think he tip of the iceberg is emerging.