Post date: May 12, 2011 2:3:12 PM
Post date: May 12, 2011 2:3:12 PM
On April 2nd, 10 days after the first swarm call, we got another call from Sam. He has another swarm! Being a Saturday Adrianne and I dropped everything and jumped in the X. We arrived to find the cluster of honeybees hanging from a branch about 20' up way out on branch on a strong limb. I put on my veil and climbed the latter till I was right under the cluster. After a minute or so the small branch was severed. I carried the cluster down the ladder, sprayed the cluster very well and dropped the bees into a new hive box. We put the frames in and put the cover on. Immediately a couple dozen honeybees were out on the porch fanning like crazy to say "We're down here!" to the other bees.
Once again Adrianne and I grabbed some dinner and went to Barnes & Noble till the sun set. We figured that this swarm issued from the same hive the first one came from. After sunset we closed the hive up and brought it back to our apiary. We left the next day for Myrtle Beach to spend the weekend with family. When we returned home from the weekend I was excited to see how Hive #2 was doing. I rushed back the apiary and lifted the hive cover. Where were the bees? There were about a dozen roaming around inside the empty hive! What happened? Did a skunk enjoy a good meal? Opossum, maybe? I didn't see any evidence of that.
So being somewhat confused I thought I'd check on Hive #1 to see what the situation was there. The bees were coming and going like crazy so I was somewhat comforted that Hive #1 didn't suffer the same fate has #2. I lifted the lid on #1 and saw about twice as many bees as a few days earlier! Woah! Did #2 move in with #1? Well, they likely both came from the same parent hive. I was reassured that the honeybees from hive #2 didn't just leave. We've still got them. But it just struck me as odd. After a lot of thought and insight from the beekeeping forum the consensus seems to be that I didn't get the Queen with the swarm or that the Queen otherwise was lost in the swarming process somehow. The worker bees have to have a queen to survive. So whatever the case, they now have a queen. And Hive #1 is even stronger than before!