So why did my Scotts Valley hive swarm??? Because they were busting at the seams!!!
About a week before James brought the Scotts Valley Hive to my orchard, the queen laid an egg in the top of a swarm cell. The nurse bees filled the cell with royal jelly ~ which would be the new queen's nourishment for the next 16 days. The old queen had determined that the hive was getting too crowded and it was time for her to split off and start a new hive elsewhere. If we had added another hive box to the top about 4 weeks prior, the colony would not have swarmed. Their cozy home would have doubled in size and there would have been plenty of room for all the bees to live comfortably.
But there is something very interesting about this... I had hoped to place 3 hives in my orchard but James only had 2 to sell me. So 2 Becomes 3 :)
The white hive in my Scotts Valley hive ~ the grey hive is my San Francisco hive and the bright pumpkin orange hive is my Mother's Day hive.
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