A Home for a Swarm

     Last week I was checking up on one of my empty hives, when I noticed about 10 bees buzzing around it. This is odd to see around an empty hive. I began to clear leaves and twigs off it, to try to make it more appealing to the bees when suddenly they all flew away. About 30 seconds after they had disappeared the sky began to hum with a familiar noise. This humming noise I know well as the sound of a swarm of bees. The cloud came right overhead and hovered above me up in the treetops. I thought it best to move away from the hive, so I moved about 8 feet away, and crouched down with my camera rolling. After hovering a little while, bees started to land on the entryway to the hive. Pretty soon the whole swam was buzzing around me, waiting their turn to land on the hive.

      Swarming bees are not aggressive, and so even though I was not in a bee suit, I felt pretty safe, and just enjoyed the moment.

      Less than 5 minutes from when the hive was empty, the swarm had almost all landed in or on the hive. It was a good size swarm, which should make it a strong colony.

      This brand new little hive has been in its place now 8 days. During this time I have checked up on it two times including today. It is amazing to me that during a random visit I would not have spent more than one minute on, God allowed me to see it being occupied. 

      As of right now I have two occupied hives. One from the wild bees I caught three days ago, and one from today’s swarm. It is been a good few days for bees. formerly empty hive had a strong colony of honey bees in it! That makes two hives in one week!