i was working in the kitchen yesterday when i heard our green hive start to swarm. at that point, all we could do was watch::
again they were hanging nearly 30 feet up. there was no way to try to capture them and bring them back. this time, the scout bees did their work quickly and within a few hours, the cluster started to sag and then broke and left for good. ::
i will miss this queen, she was a super strong one. hopefully the one the hive will raise will be just as productive. so it goes with beekeeping i suppose. next year i will have some empty hives on hand and practice splitting. i knew the hive was filling up, but because it was a new box from later in the spring i just put on a super and hoped they would move up and fill it in with honey. there were no queen cells during my last hive check. we were waiting on the next nectar flow and we almost made it there. bummer.
ps - there is a short video clip of the actual swarming on my instagram account: elliemoonstreams