I don't know, but I had a moment of panic a couple days ago. It was one of those rare moments (as it seems lately) where the rain stopped and it was actually pretty nice. I was in the back yard with the kids and the dog, and my husband walked in to the yard using the gate by the bees...and stopped to look at them. He called me over. "What are they doing?" he asked.
Yikes. I had no idea, but they looked for all intents and purposes like they'd had enough of this weather, they were packing their bags and heading for LA.
My next door neighbor calmly told me they looked like they were swarming. I think it shaved five years off my life.
I ran into the house and started to post on beesource, a forum that is dedicated to beekeeping worldwide. But wouldn't you know, this guy from Philadelphia posted pretty much the same question!! He had the same issue, bees in three hives crowding the bottom boards. Several people had responded with different theories and asking questions. Had he seen supercedure cells? Did they have room to grow (empty frames) in there? I started to feel better...most people thought it was the weather, and he IS on the same coast.
The next morning, he'd posted again. Two of his hives had swarmed. I don't think I'd ever suited up so quickly.
I proceeded to rip apart both hives (carefully, of course). No evidence whatsoever of supercedure cells and plenty of room for them. I felt bad...they were pretty crabby, as though they were saying "Look lady, I don't know what your problem is but we have ONE day of sun in a week with no more in the foreseeable future, so move it...we have honey to collect!" I've actually never seen them that crabby. I still don't know what they were doing, but I didn't like it one bit!!
No comments:
Post a Comment