It feels like spring outside and the honeybees are doing their thing - flying around, getting pollen and nectar where they can find it and... getting ready to swarm. As a result, we'll be going into the hives probably tomorrow, inspecting the frames and (hopefully) making splits BEFORE they swarm. We have four hives to go through tomorrow. After dark, I tipped the hives over to see how heavy they were and there is a good population in each hive. That means the queens are doing a good job.
Why do I say the bees are getting ready to swarm? Well, the photo below shows the column by our side door. A number of colonies of bees have made their home in that hollow fiberglass column over the years. It has to be absolutely full of honeycomb. Generally, in the summer, the bees leave. I'm not sure if it gets too hot in there for them or they fill it up and run out of room. Perhaps it's a combination of the two.
The column has been absent of bees for the past 8 months or so. This morning, we began to see scout bees checking out the place. They have been sent by the colony to house hunt. They went into the open house and (I'm sure) had little tape measures and measured out the square footage and amenities that the column offers. They'll bring that data back to the hive for a vote, and we'll see if we get a swarm of bees to move back in. What's that strapped on top of the ladder, you might be asking?
But I have bad news to report. The bees are ignoring the nuc. There is just too much old comb in the column that they can smell. Bees are opportunistic. For every comb that they must build from scratch, it equates to less honey. Bees moving into the column don't really need to make honeycomb. It's already there. More and more bees are checking out the column. I'm certain within a week we'll have a new swarm inhabiting the column. I've move the nuc swarm trap out into the yard where hopefully we can catch another swarm.
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