Friday, February 24th was the first official birthday of Honeycomb Adventures Press, LLC, and to celebrate I offered birthday cake to anyone who came by. I didn’t expect a crowd as it was only a simple last-minute way to celebrate a first milestone. A swarm of honeybees was certainly not a part of my original plan for the day. But there they were, hanging on a low branch of a Camelia bush close to my office door – and most definitely welcome guests.
My husband, Dave, scrambled to gather up his beekeeping equipment in an attempt to encourage them to move into a nuke box. But these girls had other ideas and suddenly flew away in a large humming cloud. It seemed they were reminding me that my birthday party was only a drop-in and they didn’t want to over-extend their welcome. Dave tried to follow them to see where they flew off to, but was disappointed to lose track of them.
Early Saturday morning the phone rang. A neighbor from a few houses up the street was looking for “the bee man” to come to the rescue. The bees, obviously our flighty guests from the day before, had landed in a pile on the ground in their front yard. A few more were hanging on a tree nearby. This time we were ready and apparently the bees were more willing to give the nuke box a try. They began marching in with little hesitation. After an hour or two the bees had all gone into the box.
This is a most unusual time of the year for honeybees to swarm. They generally begin swarming in late March and April. So I can’t help but see this as one of God’s blessings on my Honeycomb Adventures Press, LLC.
Check out my husband’s post with great video clips about this swarm on his web page, The Pollination Home Page.
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