Monday, April 18, 2011

Swarm, Swarm!


I looked out our back door this morning and noticed a swarm of
hundreds of honey bees. I've never seen so many bees in one place
at one time in my life. They were swarming around an evergreen
bush near our garden and iris garden. I went in and grabbed my
camera. I took these shots with my long lens because I didn't want
to get any closer than I had to. I took this shot from our garage
door window. It was a pretty amazing sight!






Here's a close up of the colony. I sent these
pictures to my husband, Terry. He used to
work with a bee keeper, Bo Smith, at WWL
in Smyrna, TN. We used to buy honey from
him. Terry gave Bo a call and Bo said the
swarm will move on once the scout bees find
a new home for them. He suggested we call the
Smith County Extension office and they can
probably give us a name of a local beekeeper
who will come out and round them up for us
and set up a new hive. Terry is waiting to hear
back from them, so stayed tuned!

Update on our bee colony...Ronnie Bussell, a local
bee keeper here in Smith County came by the house
this afternoon with his bee keeping gear. By the time
he got here the colony had moved on. It was very
interesting talking to him about bee keeping and bees.
I was hoping the colony would still be here when he got
here so I could watch him work. Oh well, at least I can
mow now without fear of being stung :0)

4 comments:

Jane said...

Cool!! Glad it wasn't the Killer Bees! :) Our neighbor is a bee keeper. We see his bees on our flowers all the time, but they've never been in a swarm like this!

Kay R. said...

How neat is that?! I've never seen anything like it. I'm sure you're glad they moved on, but it would have been interesting to watch the bee keeper do his roundup :) Love your pictures!

Ann S. said...

I was so hoping the colony would still be here so I could get pictures of the bee keeper removing the bees. I am glad they're gone though. I was so afraid the cats would get into that nest! It was fascinating to watch those bees!

Kelly said...

THAT IS SO COOL!!! They moved fast! Wonder where they went? Amazing little creatures. The world couldn't survive without them! Scary thought. Cool pix!!!