Swarms and Splits
In my last post, we were holding our breath to see if spring had really arrived. Update: it did arrive! The unseasonably warm weather made a swift end to winter and gave all of our hives (as well as ourselves) an unpredicted boost. For the first time ever, all of our hives survived the winter. We were checking on the hives and had a hunch that we needed to get to splitting the hives, but it seemed too early. It turns out the bees were quite ready to split. It was wonderful and, on Mother's Day, forced us to "level up" our beekeeping - in more ways than one! We were finishing our family time together outside when our company noticed "the bees were really busy." Mr. Bee and I saw that they were coming rapidly out of one of the hives and flying up and around...and away. We could even hear a difference. This was a swarm. Swarming is the honey bees' usual way to reproduce and make more colonies. Imagine a hive has survived winter. The weather is warm...