My Mother's Day Hive

Mother's Day 2008

5 days after my little girls' hives were put in my orchard ~ my Scotts Valley hive swarmed. My friend Lori and I were walking up my driveway when all of a sudden she shouted "STOP!". I looked at her and then saw what she was looking at ~ a large swarm of my honey bees were clustered on my orchard fence. OK ~ the queen and half of my Scotts Valley hive had decided that they were tired of living in cramped quarters and wanted to find a new home.

My learning curve on beekeeping just got steep!!! What do I do??? I was just getting used to looking inside the hive and had no idea how to catch a swarm of honey bees! I called Jeff who looks after the observation bee hive at the Natural History Museum in Santa Cruz. He gave me a few ideas on where to buy a hive, on a Sunday, on Mother's Day ~ of course, Frank Carrier in San Jose. So I give Frank a call and chatted with him a little bit. Drove over to San Jose, bought a hive, came home and put two coats of paint on the hive and placed it on my garden bench in my orchard.

Now, to catch the swarm and put them in their new home! Of course, I have my bee suit on and my gloves! First I sprayed them with sugar water ~ calms them down and they start cleaning each other :) Then I gently took an egg spatula and scrapped them into a cardboard box and quickly walked over to their new hive and poured them into their new home. I watched them move down deep, amongst the frames and foundation and disappear. It took me the rest of the day to gather all the loose bees flying around. But in the end, I caught the queen and the swarm and they were happy with their new pumpkin orange hive and I named them My Mother's Day Hive because they came to me on Mother's Day.