Friday, May 2, 2014

If You Build It, They Will Come

So last year we had two hives of bees, both started from packages installed in the spring. Neither colony made it through the winter. We decided not to buy packages this year, and Trish said offhand that maybe some bees would find our hives and move in. Guess what happened yesterday? A swarm moved into one of our hives. Neither of us were home when it happened, but our housemate reported seeing a huge column of bees around noon. Now there is a lot of activity in the hive with bees going in and out.

Trish never cleared the honey and comb out of the hives, so we imagine that the bees are busy cleaning things up to their satisfaction. We don't think the old colony was diseased or anything, so there shouldn't be an issue with the new colony taking up residence. These bees are the first natural swarm we've had.

By the way, if anyone is interested in keeping bees this year in the Seattle area and is looking for a Warre hive, Trish does build them, so feel free to drop us a line.