Last week Todd was playing hide and seek with the kids and hid in the lemon tree.
He looked up and realized there was a gigantic swarm of bees above him.....
Just one queen bee amongst all those worker bees!
A swarm is a big cluster of bees, in the order of 20,000 individuals, and almost always with just one queen bee. It is a transient thing. When a colony of honeybees become too crowded in their hive, they create a new queen. Just before the new queen emerges from her cell, the old queen leaves the hive and flies off with about half of the worker bees. Soon after leaving the hive, they congregate somewhere, often on the branch of a tree. They cluster there, sometimes just for a matter of a few hours, sometimes for days. Scouts are sent out to look for a suitable location for the new nest.
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We called in a beekeeper to rescue (us) and the bees. He came that night for fear the bees would find a new home in the morning. Our nice beekeeper was in the early stages of starting his very own bee colonies in his backyard for honey production. He was doing it just for fun. It was nice to know that our bees were going to a good home and were not going to be exterminated.
Todd was wondering why he didn't get a fancy beekeeper outfit, both for fashion and safety....
If you are bored and want to learn more about beekeeping, read the Wikipedia on beekeeping here. I found the whole thing fascinating.
