Bees Bees Bees

This season has been a very active one for swarms. I told a lot of people they NEEDED to split their colonies or they would swarm. Most of them have called me for advice with swarms and admitted they did not split their hives. Splits are the best way to manage your hive because there is no guarantee you will catch a swarm when it emerges. I have caught three swarms this season, assited with 3 more and given advice on at least 20 not to mention at least that many I had to turn away because I was at work or otherwise could not get to them.

I finished up a little cabinet job I was doing for a lady in Leicester (I got it after assisting her with a bee problem and opened my big mouth about my carpentry experience and she started telling me about all the carpentry work she needed done) about noon and saw I had missed several calls on my cell phone. I returned one to my queen rearing partner, Mike Singleton, and he told me he was out of town and there was a swarm in his bee yard on hwy 110 in Canton. I told him I would go and get it hived and headed back that way. Next I returned a call to North Asheville and a woman told me she had bees in the wall and would like to get them out. I made arrangements to go look and give an estimate for removal and continued to Canton wondering what I would find there.

I arrived to find a swarm about as big around as a volleyball and about 3 feet long. It had weighted down a limb on an apple tree to the ground. It was easy to hive and I was done in minutes. Glad to be able to help Mike and he says we will split it when he gets back in. I wonder if I will get another call today, because I have NOTHING to put them in if I do.

Later in the evening, my sister called me with some interesting news. She had been to South Carolina and on the way back up I-26 back into North Carolina, she saw an abundance of Locust blooms hanging in clusters like grapes. She was excited to tell me, because we all LOVE Locust honey when we can get it. Maybe this will be one of those years when we get some. I also noticed today that the Tulip Poplar in my area is not far off from the start of the bloom. HONEY SEASON is almost here again!

Cal