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@denisebarthell

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OUR FIRST SWARM💨🐝😱 What a crazy cool experience!! Honeybee colonies naturally split into two when the colony gets super big and there’s not enough space for everyone. One way to prevent bees from swarming is to split a hive on purpose, which we did last weekend. Sooo…. Apparently there were so many bees in the original hive, they needed to split again! When preparing for a swarm, the worker bees eat A TON of nectar so they are fueled for a big flight and stakeout. The queen bee stops eating food so she can slim down enough to be able to fly. Also, the worker bees build queen cups — cells in which baby queen bees are raised — so that once the swarm leaves (with the existing queen), the bees left behind will have a new queen. So the bees left the hive, the original queen with them, and found a tree branch to perch on temporarily. If we left them alone, they would’ve moved again to a more permanent home once scout bees located a good spot (likely a nice tree). But we want to keep our bees, so we captured the swarm! Luckily I had just built some new hives this week, so the swarm already has a brand new, empty home to live in. 🏠 Fingers crossed everything will be okay and these bees like their new home! This process was SO COOL for us and surprisingly straightforward! Wish our new hive good luck! 🍀 Special thanks to @denisebarthell for her help today!
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