Thursday, May 5, 2011

To BEE or not to BEE

Earlier this week, while coaxing my child to begin his homework, I happened to glance out the window. Much to my surprise, I saw my entire colony of honeybees flying around my backyard. Literally thousands and thousands.


Shortly after I noticed that they were ALL out flying, they started clustering back on the hive. I sat out on the grass and watched as every last bee marched back in. Strange...


A beehive naturally swarms when the colony has run out of space. The honeybees will prepare a new queen and the colony will split leaving some in the hive while the rest 'swarm' and seek out a new home.


I think my girls were doing a dress rehearsal.

3 comments:

Kareena Watkins said...

Cool Beans! or should I say, "cool BEES!" That is awesome. I had no idea they split the hive! Neat!

Kara said...

So, are you going to get another hive for them / expand their current hive? Or is letting half of them relocate the natural thing to do? Bees are pretty amazing...

Unknown said...

Do wasps swarm to? We had a huge bunch of them in one of our garbage cans a couple of weeks ago. Scared me a lot when I knocked the lid off and saw how many there were.
We look forward to your visit in a couple of weeks. Love, Dad