Swarming Bees and all kinds of fun.....

Warning: TONS of pictures ahead, this is just too cool to go easy on pics (click on the photo to see them in detail)...... Yesterday morning was a busy one. I was getting ready to head into town for errands before I went to my Mom's group/book study. I had finally settled in to nurse Ephraim before I left, and Elsa came to tell me how happy the bees were in the nice sunny weather....that there were lots of them buzzing around the swings. That's nice sweetie, I say. Then she comes back 2 more times to tell me about them, the second of which she notes that they're worried about swinging because the bees are too loud. Too loud???? I look outside to see this: Yes, our barely 2 month old group of bees has already outgrown their home and swarmed! That means they raised up another Queen and 1/2 the hive left. The bee supply place told us it would be a year or two before they did that. The day quickly changed from errands to focusing on our little bee friends. You have less than 24 hours to get them into another hive before they start looking for one themselves.

My Dad and sister got them transferred into a new hive box while I was out. It looks super neat. You just spray them down with sugar water and tap them into their new home. They used a frame from the current hive to help them get established. You can see the eggs within the combs, and many new bees were hatching while the frame was being transferred (as you can see) Wow!It's incredible how tight they all are...protecting the new Queen

Everyone all in??

Happy in their new hive