Buggin' Out

 To misquote/paraphrase A Tribe Called Quest song: "Swarms upon swarms upon swarms is what I have."

I think the swarm count at our farm has been six. Now I'm not sure if all these bees have come from hives here or elsewhere. They seem to be drawn to our fruit trees and a particular elder tree near the creek.
If you have witnessed a swarm of bees, you know the magic, if not, I don't know if I can recreate it.
Walking under and among a 30' cloud of bees is one of the most incredible experiences in life. Bees everywhere. Their hum becomes hypnotizing. For a moment I forget my human skin and  join the bees in the air. Perhaps it is a kin to being a part of critical mass, huge street protest or monarch butterfly migration. So many bodies linked by common goal, moving together like a single organism. Feel the power of numbers and the power of focused attention.

Bees beginning to gather, if you look close, you may see them flying around.

Bees swarm when their numbers get too big for their current home, so this means our bees are doing well.
The  queen will lay a number of new queen eggs and as or before they hatch she will leave with some of her daughter bees. Now these new queens will either duke it out for supremacy in the hive or there will be more swarms. Each consecutive swarm has been getting smaller and smaller. The first was huge!
I actually got to watch them leave their hive and fly together to the peach tree. Amazing!

pretty solid sweater around the peach trunk.

The next day as we were preparing a hive for them, they became airborne again and we followed underneath them, carrying their new home to wherever they landed. Which was the elder tree along the creek near our two other hives. They began to settle on a mishmash of branches. While removing a  branch of  bees at a time, an unsupported twig fell away and so too did the hanging bees. Oh No. Most fell to the ground in a hiss of "WTF".
the bees we had already secured in the hive, were busy devouring the honey comb in the hive left to entice them. But within a few minutes of that unfortunate spill, all the bees were collecting again in the elder tree.

bees in transition, organized and protecting the queen

The queen must have called all her children to rejoin. I felt they had been thru enough for now, and chose to plant beets for an hour and check on them after. Beets in, and back to the bees. Uh where did  they go?
No more hanging bees in the tree. Oh but what's this? a beard of bees hanging from the roof of another hive?!
Are these them? no seems too small a number, perhaps these are from the hive they are on and are just hot and bothered with all this swarming going on.
So this first swarm got away. I hope they found a better home than the one I offered.  To share in the "Beetour" of the day was so amazing.
Of the six swarms we were able to collect two in homemade KTBH (Kenyan Top Bar Hive). One in the orchard and one near the creek
Special thanks to Ken and Lou for building one of the new hives and Ian for helping collect the swarms.
Pictures of those hives next time.