SWARM NUMBER TWO....AND THREE....
On Sunday, I went with Cher and the Bugtussle kids to see a high school production of Peter Pan in Lafayette. While we were away, Eric and Jesse worked on installing the stove pipe in our cabin. While they were taking a break, observing the bees as Jesse retold our story of the swarm, Eric suddenly exclaimed, "It's happening again!" And it was - ANOTHER SWARM. They scrambled together an assortment of old hive parts and pieces of bark and plywood to make a hive. Although the bees didn't seem thrilled about their somewhat bedraggled-looking new home, they haven't left yet! We are planning to move them to a more hospitable location on a cold morning. I truly cannot believe that once again we happened to be walking by the bees as they decided to swarm!We are getting a bit worried, however, about the original hive that keeps swarming....especially because we came upon yet another small swarm of bees late last night (which we did not capture). That is three total swarms, quite early in the season. I am planning on checking in each of the hives tomorrow to make sure all is well. Any beekeepers out there have ideas about this sort of behavior? I know that swarming in general is a sign of health - a sign that the bees are productive and expanding. But THREE seems a bit excessive!- Hannah.