Bee Swarm!

[lesa]

Sparkles, those bees are amazing. The workers form a ball around the queen and keep her warm. The experts say that ball never goes below 55 degrees. In bitter cold, you might have to feed the bees. You wrap the hive in tar paper and put up a wind block. But really, they do the rest...The important thing is ventilation. That honey is full of moisture and it needs to escape the hive or mold, etc. occurs.

 

[sparkles2307]

So, I could just, get a hive box, set it up in the yard, and if bees didnt come to it by themselves I could ask one of the local beekeepers to bring me the next swarm he gets called to remove?

 

[lesa]

It is not likely bees would just arrive in your box- though I have heard of it happening. A generous beekeeper might bring you a swarm. I bought a nuc from a fellow beekeeper. It is a queen and some worker bees, to start a hive. The queen lays 1000 eggs per day, so in very short order, you have a thriving hive.

 

[sparkles2307]

Cool! There are 3 honey businesses on our town of 800 ppl, and I know that my mom gets a swarm in her yard almost every summer that they have one of the beekeepers come take away. So I guess I could just have her call me when one shows up.