Swarm Capture: May 19, 2007

We were scheduled to get our second package of bees yesterday, but no joy. The supplier called and said they had some weather delays and it didn't ship as promised. They proposed next week. This is the third delay and we're almost to the end of May.

I was out getting things ready in the bee yard this afternoon and setting up the new hive-box, when I looked over and saw a huge swarm resting on a nearby pine tree. Now we don't know for sure if this swarm is a split from our hive or someone else's, but it was a big one. We changed our afternoon plans and went right to the books to see what we needed to capture it.

Anyway, here's a video showing our exciting afternoon capturing the swarm.



EDIT: Below is a snap-shot of the swarm on the pine-tree... It was a very nice young tree that was going to grow up and shade our hives, but we had to sacrifice it to capture the swarm.
The picture below shows the swarm marching into the new hive. This was fascinating to watch. You can see a bit of it in the video.

May Flowers

May Day 2007

Happy May Day! Spring at our place is in full bloom. Virtually every one of our fruit trees are blooming at the same time now. We've got three varieties of crabapple trees, Granny Smith and Gala apples, cherries, plum and the choke-cherries lining the drive are all blooming this week. There are also a few flowering shrubs blooming and even the lilacs have started to bloom just this morning. I suspect the bees think they're in heaven right about now.

We've had a wet April and everything is so green too. It's quite a switch from last year. Yesterday (April 30) also marked our first harvest from the garden: 4 lbs of fresh rhubarb.

We've got about two more weeks before the new bees arrive.