Red Swarm Queen

I haven’t posted in awhile, because I’ve been so busy with bee stuff. Splitting, inspections, swarm chasing (mostly my own), and doing cutouts has taken up all of my spare time. I wasn’t sure how many colonies I had, so I finally walked around and counted them. 55!!! How the heck did this happen? And I’ve sold a bunch, and gave away just as many to close friends (who don’t treat). I have 2 more cutouts scheduled this week, so I’m going to need to find them a home. Anyway, I took some video of a swarm I shook off of a low tree branch at home. This was a secondary swarm from my overwintered feral tree colony that swarmed a couple weeks ago. This line of bees has very red looking queens, even though the workers are various colors. I thought she was going to take flight, but she quickly turns around and slips in. To me, it looked like she was surfing.

Author: brucelovesbees

I keep honey bees in Reading, Bernville, and Fleetwood, PA without treatments. I love to garden and observe Wasps, Bumble bees, and ants. I also raise mealworms for my Eastern Spotted turtle and myself. View all posts by brucelovesbees