Drama in the Beeyard!

Sunday, April 15

It was Friday the 13th and Opening Night of Hair.  Many of you may know that I am the Production Manager of a professional theatre.  On the day in question, I was very busy and wasn't checking my messages, either in my office or on my I-phone.  When I finally checked I found numerous missed calls and texts...all from my husband Bill.  The texts had photos attached...very scary photos!

Hippolyta on Friday the 13th

As you can see, there were thousands of bees boiling out of the hive and buzzing all over each other.  I immediately called home and spoke with an extremely agitated Bill.  I was to come home at once since it looked like Hippolyta was about to swarm.  Did I mention that it was Opening Night at the theatre?  My plan that night was to have a lovely, leisurely meal at a local restaurant and then go to the theatre for some great entertainment.  Best laid plans...I went home and we ordered in pizza.

When I got home I couldn't believe what was going on.  I know that I blithely explain to friends that there can be 60,000-100,000 bees in a mature hive but nothing had prepared me for the reality.  What to do?  It looked like it was too late for intervention so I had to figure out how to catch the swarm.  From my reading I knew that what I was seeing was the first step before all the bees would leave the hive with the queen.  Their next step would be to fly to a low branch of a tree.  The bees would then make a ball of bees  on the branch or where ever else they chose.  The queen would be in the middle  of this ball.  The scout bees would be looking for a likely new home and when enough of the scouts were interested in the same place, the whole swarm of bees would head to its new digs.  I wanted those new digs to be one of my hives and not the mirror on the car down the street (I am sure you have seen the pictures).  I went to my many bee books and the internet to figure out what to do.  We decided to build a bait hive to hold the Hippolyta swarm.  I rubbed the inside and the entrances with lemon peel which supposedly would attract the bees so that they might choose the bait hive over a hole in a tree.

Bait hive

While we waited for the bees to flock to the new hive, we also waited for the pizza to arrive.  By this time it was around 6 pm and the sun was going down.  It was getting cooler and we noticed that the bees were starting to go back into the hive.  Reprieve! 

I sent a picture of the hive at its height to the beekeeper I bought my gear from asking for advice and got ready for the evening at the theatre.  If you are wondering what Queen Elizabeth I was doing in all this turmoil, look at this.

Queen Elizabeth I

And this is what Hippolyta looked like when we left...still pretty scary but going the right direction...inside!

Hippolyta later that evening

When we got back from the theatre it was past midnight but we had to go to the beeyard before going in.  There were still some bees hanging outside(drinking, smoking and discussing the great show they had just seen in the theatre!:))   Happily, it has been grey and rainy for the rest of this weekend so I have gotten a bit of time to reflect on my next steps.  I received a response to my panicked e-mail from the beekeeper as well.  He said that they were warm and bored because there was no work to do.  He suggested that I split them to get a new hive and stated that if I didn't do anything they would likely swarm in a couple of weeks.  So as soon as I get a chance...sunny and a chance to leave work...I will split the hive.  I will probably do Queen Elizabeth soon as well.  You know what this means...four hives!

I will write another blog about how I could have avoided this panic and why bees swarm.  In the meantime, I will leave you with an image of spring in the back yard.  This is one of our pear trees in bloom.  I have noticed that bees have been busy pollinating these trees as well as our service berry trees.  The birds and squirrels will be happy this summer!

Young pear tree in bloom