Last year we had two bee hives. One was very strong, the other seemed to barely make it through the winter, and at times we really weren’t sure it would last at all. Well I am happy to report that we now have three hives! Below is the original strong hive, it swarmed last year but Karen was successful in catching that swarm and encouraging it to stay.

But this year it swarmed again, and we were able to capture the swarm and place it in a new hive.

Now swarms aren’t really good. After the colony swarms, the new colony, and the old colony spend much time and energy rebuilding comb and waiting for the new queen to start laying eggs, rather than making honey. At least that’s what I think happens; all this stuff is still so new to us. But for us it is just a neat learning experience. In an effort to prevent the original strong colony, which had just swarmed, from swarming again, I took a few full frames of brood and pollen out and replaced them with empty frames, giving the queen more room to lay eggs. I then put these “borrowed” full frames into our little weak hive, pictured below

I am happy to see lots of activity so am hoping the queen is still in there and some new brood and pollen will help strengthen this little hive.

So much to learn, so much concern about messing it up and not doing the right thing. Kinda feels like when we brought home Joshua, our first child, from the hospital!

Anyhow, for now the bees are busy, nectar is flowing, and there is lots of activity in all three hives. For today, that’s a win!

Cheers from the farm,

Michael