As most of you know, we've been hanging out at Basecamp during this nasty pandemic. So, we've been taking advantage of our time at home to get our place tidied up. Today we started trimming low branches off of a tree on the NE corner of our 10 acres to make it easier to mow around the trees.
A few days ago we spied a dark mass in one of our biggest trees and checked it out. The tree had a large ball of honey bees hanging on it way up high. We thought perhaps it might be a swarm. When honey bees out grow their shelter, they make a new queen then she and a number of the bees from the overcrowded box 'swarm' away to find a new home. If you are an astute beekeeper, you can watch for things like this. If they don't go too far, you can collect them and give them a new home, thereby, increasing your hives naturally. We kept honey bees for a while and used to do this. The hobby is fun and the harvest of fresh honey is wonderful, but alas, after having been stung once too often I go into shock and can't breath if a honey bee stings me now. I can't use any product from the honey bee - not even the honey - or I have an allergic reaction. So sad, because I really enjoyed the hobby. I still think honey bees are beautiful!
So wouldn't you know it? The swarm decided to stay and they have built a beautiful comb in the tree! This happened to us once before and we were able to don our bee suits and put them into a proper hive. Then we harvested the wild honey. Yum! This one is too high in the tree to get to and I can't go near them anyway, so we'll see how long they stay! I guess we won't be trimming this tree for awhile!
A few days ago we spied a dark mass in one of our biggest trees and checked it out. The tree had a large ball of honey bees hanging on it way up high. We thought perhaps it might be a swarm. When honey bees out grow their shelter, they make a new queen then she and a number of the bees from the overcrowded box 'swarm' away to find a new home. If you are an astute beekeeper, you can watch for things like this. If they don't go too far, you can collect them and give them a new home, thereby, increasing your hives naturally. We kept honey bees for a while and used to do this. The hobby is fun and the harvest of fresh honey is wonderful, but alas, after having been stung once too often I go into shock and can't breath if a honey bee stings me now. I can't use any product from the honey bee - not even the honey - or I have an allergic reaction. So sad, because I really enjoyed the hobby. I still think honey bees are beautiful!
So wouldn't you know it? The swarm decided to stay and they have built a beautiful comb in the tree! This happened to us once before and we were able to don our bee suits and put them into a proper hive. Then we harvested the wild honey. Yum! This one is too high in the tree to get to and I can't go near them anyway, so we'll see how long they stay! I guess we won't be trimming this tree for awhile!