To many people, a dandelion is considered a weed. To a honeybee, it's much more than a weed, and that gives me an "excuse" to delay a bit between lawn mowings :)
Today was supposed to start with a condo showing, but upon further consideration the buyer realized the condo REALLY didn't fit his needs, so we canceled the showing.
That cancellation turned out to be a stroke of luck for us, not from our real estate perspective, but from our amateur beekeeping perspective. One of our four beehives decided today was a day to swarm.
Basically a swarm is this: the existing queen of the hive decides she wants new digs, so she takes about half the gals with her and heads to a new place. They know where they're going, but their departure is fairly obvious if you're fortunate enough to be outside at the right time. They'll fly a short distance and then take a break, and when they take a break they form up around the queen to protect her. The net is you get a big clump of honeybees. (PSA: if you see a swarm of honeybees, DO NOT kill them, spray them, etc. They'll probably leave on their own soon. If not, find a local beekeeper, they'll probably be happy to come get them to add to their apiary!).
So since I wasn't showing a condo this morning, when that hive decided to swarm, we happened to be home to see it happen. And double good luck, they only flew about 20 yards and balled up on small branches within easy reach of a stepladder. Don bee suit, grab a box, snip branches and shake the bees off into the box. Close lid and hope the queen is inside (most likely). Transfer bees to a new hive and put what is called a queen excluder entrance on the front so the queen can't leave. Hopefully she starts laying eggs soon since the new hive included frames started by some of the hives that failed during the winter.
And while we were at it, we added boxes to the existing hives so the colonies can expand and lessen the odds they feel the need to leave. And also while we were at it, we split a few frames that included cells filled with new queens-to-be to a new hive so start them up. One new queen will establish herself as queen bee...and let's just say she'll Game of Thrones the other candidates.
So after about 5 hours of bee work, we've got our spring bee work completed and are wrapping up the evening with some great Thai take-out from Mae Ploy's in downtown Lebanon. If you haven't tried them yet, give them a call. Tonight was our third take-out from them during the shelter-in-place and every time has been excellent!
Serving Greater Cincinnati home buyers and sellers,
Bill & Liz aka BLiz
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