What a Bee-yutiful Day!

Finally!  A break in the weather yesterday and we enjoyed the entire day outside in 75-degree sunny happiness.  It truly was a gorgeous day and that made our work cleaning out planting beds and transplanting trees even more enjoyable. In fact, I'm sore today from all the digging and raking but it makes me feel good knowing that it came from a hard day's work.

We also took a couple of breaks to talk to the various neighbors that emerged to enjoy the sun. I spent quite a bit of time in the morning talking with our neighbor Christine (from The Deadly Nightshade fame) as she showed me her newly tilled garden beds and plans for the yard. While we were standing there talking, their bees seemed quite lively but I thought it was just because they were "stretching their legs" after being cooped up in their hive all winter.

Boy was I wrong!  Christine came running over about an hour later to tell us they were swarming.

I've never seen a swarm before so there was no way in he-double-hockeysticks I was going to miss it. 

 

Look at all those bees!  Their were literally thousands of them swirling around in the air all around us but they seemed to not even notice that we were there.  None of them landed on me or tried to sting me.  It was really amazing to stand in the middle of this chaos as they whizzed past me.

The taller hive is the active hive where all the bees were living this winter.  According to Christine, the shorter hive died off during the winter and, when they opened it, there was no brood, honey or dead bees in there.  So apparently the active hive had scavenged everything out of it.  It almost looks like they are swarming over to the other hive, doesn't it? Bees are opportunists and this would be the equivalent of a live-in ready house for them.

 

Then, as I was talking to Christine, I noticed this on the fence.

A second, smaller swarm!  These bees were just hanging there quietly on a piece of bark stuck to the fence, presumably protecting or waiting for their queen before moving on to another location.  I'd say there were a few hundred bees here.  These were combed into a third box and given some honey.  So now Christine has 3 hives instead of just 1. 

 

You can see some of her pictures of the swarm over on her Facebook page. 

 

I just want to thank her for allowing me to experience that.  It truly was beautiful and fascinating and one to add to your bucket list.  Thanks, Christine!

Shared with this week's Homestead Barn and Clever Chicks hops.