Crisis in the apiary this afternoon. After noticing a cluster of bees on the front of one of my hives over the past couple of days, I became concerned that they were going to swarm. A quick inspection later revealed a few swarm queen cells – including a closed one, which is usually a sign that it’s too late to stop a swarm. However, the queen was still present in the hive. I am thankful that the weather went back to a more natural temperature, because if it had been sunny and in the upper 80’s/90’s for longer than those 3 days, they would have swarmed and I would have lost them. So, I had to take emergency action. I took the queen out and 4 frames of brood and honey stores, and created a new hive to create an “artificial swarm”. Hopefully, it’ll confuse the original hive enough into thinking that they have actually swarmed and they will stay put, hatch their new queen and live happily ever after. Whew…..I’d like to thank Bret Fisher of Chestnut Glen Bees of Haymarket for talking me off the ledge!
