August 9, 2014, 10:34 am…Waggle dancing takes place.
After reading Honeybee Democracy, by Thomas Seeley, I sort of knew what to expect on swarm behavior. The scouts would each go out and report back to the swarm. They would indicate the direction of a possible future hive location by doing a waggle dance in relation to the sun. Straight up meant “in the direction of the sun,” or angled off from straight up meant that angle direction from the sun. If the scout bee thinks she’s got a real good location, she will dance more emphatically. Other scout bees will look the location over, actually measuring the sides, and judging if it’s a good location. They will report back to the swarm. This can take several days. This bee is waggling just a bit. I wouldn’t call it a real hard sell at this point.
11:15 am…I had been seeing some scout bees around Bee Beard log hive. More now.
Since it got robbed out last month, after several weeks in decline, I made the decision to take Bee Beard out of circulation, sort of retire it, let it rest up til March whereupon, I could introduce a new swarm to it. I was in the process of dismantling it, when this August swarm took place. I had to work like a mad man. My printing deadlines were just going to have to wait. I hope my customers understand. (Do I have any left?)
I scorched out the inside of the hive, shortened up the quilt box so it fit looser, and melted small bits of comb to the five top bars. I added new leaves and sawdust to the bottom cavity and new sawdust to the quilt box. This time I drove a fence post into the ground and fastened it to the log hive to keep the winter winds from toppling it.
August 8, 2014…fence post fastened to Bee Beard log hive.
As a natural beekeeper, I was hoping maybe, just maybe, the swarm would choose Bee Beard for their new place. I mean how much more natural is that?
At 70F (20C) it’s a good day for a swarm.
2:20 pm…As luck would have it, (and I do mean luck) the swarm broke up to relocate to Bee Beard. In the video you can feel the power of thousands of bees swirling around. I’m afraid I got a little emotional in talking about it.
2:30 pm…Bee Beard is covered in bees. In the video you can see the bees crawling upward and circling the mouth before entering.
I guess you could say we were ecstatic. We just stood there in the middle of all that bee energy and talked about it what we were witnessing.
August 10, 2014…The next day it was back to business with time out for reconnaissance flights.
August 10, 2014…the day after the swarm, shows the bees on the observation window. They’ve got to build their own comb so they are hanging out here for a while.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
Just awesome. Gave me chills thinking about what it must have felt like to be standing there. I’d be emotional too. Happy Beebeard has inhabitants once more and glad you were able to catch all that action!
You can take credit for this. When you set me up with my WordPress account, it opened up a huge new opportunity for picture taking. Thank you.
That is really amazing. I can only imagine how that must have felt standing in that storm of bees 🙂 Glad to hear Beebeard is back in business!
It felt awesome…exciting…breathtaking. I knew they wouldn’t sting so I just stood out there as close as I could while still shooting the video. As they circled around and around, some began landing on Bee Beard. Eventually the log hive face was covered up. It was amazing watching them circle the mouth entrance as they worked their way inside.
Really amazing to see the whole story, to experience what most people only read about. Thanks for sharing – I’d have love to have seen it all. Beebeards hive looks really strong, the next test will be to see if she is a good, fertile queen, as you have said – exciting stuff! I believe it is the queen who finally decides on the placement and until she goes in and stays inside the swarm will not enter. There can be some to and fro but she is the queen and takes the decision but yours seemed a very decisive queen. It was good you got the log hive up and ready quickly. Amelia
“Good fertile queen” is the operational term now. The old queen goes with the swarm. The swarm leaves queen cells that will hatch out in a week or so. The first queen that hatches will ‘bugle’ and the other queens will ‘quack.’
The first emerging queen can choose between trying to sting the other queens to death in their cells, fighting any emerging queens to death, or taking a bunch of bees as a cast swarm and avoiding the confrontation.
I’ve heard differences of opinions on the above, for instance, I’ve heard on a podcast that before the queen stings the others or fights them to the death, she’s got to have been fertilized. The person who stated that is a long time beekeeper, so I really don’t know what to believe.
In my book “The Buzz about Bees” it says that the “toot” and “quack” between a new queen and the queen cells retards the hatching of younger queens thus avoiding needless loss of queens. The young queen stays in the nest about a week before her maiden flight and I think there would be a fight if she met another queen at this time. Amelia
That would make more evolutionary sense. I often wondered if there was only one virgin queen to go out to get mated, what happens if she doesn’t return? Thanks for clarifying it.
The Buzz about Bees is by Prof. Jurgen Tautz and looks at honey bees as a superorganism. It is full of very interesting information and great photographs.
Congratulations! I love BeeBeard. Cracking design. Thats a very discerning swarm.
Wow, what an incredible experience, thanks for sharing! I’m so happy your kind and gentle intentions toward the bees are being rewarded in such a beautiful way! The bees know you want a happy, natural home for them as well as the gift of being able to produce honey on their own terms. I love your bee sanctuary!
It was a most thrilling experience. I just stood out there in the vortex of swirling bees, feeling their energy, like a zen moment. I am so honored they picked my log hive.
Yes, they can keep all their honey for themselves, I’m not taking any. My feeling is the bees are in enough trouble without us beekeepers making matters worse by taking their honey and feeding them high fructose corn syrup during the winter.
We love our little bee sanctuary. We are in the process of spading a new “patch for pollinators,” as well as planting a cover crop of New Zealand white clover in bare spots.
Wow great post and video, Pat! Really fascinating. I wonder how close one could get. Looks “prohibitive” but definitely something I’d like to photograph! I guess I’d have to get a new lens. 🙂
Your photos are soooo sharp already, but that’s no excuse not to get a new lens. 🙂
yeah it would be more a lens change for working distance rather than image quality. do you get very close to the bees when taking photos? Without beekeeping suit and gear I mean.
Unless I’m opening the hive, I rarely wear a bee suit when shooting bee videos. When the bees are on flowers I can get up to about half an inch away (1 cm).
While shooting “Bee Beard is Back” I knew the bees wouldn’t sting when they’re in the swarm mode. I stood out there in the middle of them flying circles around me prior to them entering the hive. If they had been wasps I wouldn’t have been so brave. 🙂
That’s pretty interesting. I’d expect them to be more defensive, but I guess they are focused on the task at hand! Now I’m wondering how far one can go short of pawing around bear-style into a hive. I have long been under the impression that bees, especially honey bees, are less hostile than most wasps, but there’s gotta be line somewhere they don’t let anyone cross. And not that I’m planning on testing any bees’ patience, just interesting to know. 🙂
I’ve probably been lucky so far. I’ve heard of beekeepers being ‘chased’ by their bees if they get too close. I rarely open the hive up. I do look through the observation windows (in back of each hive) but its possible that since I don’t disturb their inner workings (or take their hard earned honey) they don’t have to be defensive with me.
I do so love bee beard and am very happy that the swarm made their way there too. I’ll be looking out for a similar hive home in the UK for next year perhaps. Enjoyed watching the videos too with such interesting and entertaining commentary.