Catching my first swarm!

The tractor that I use to mow our lawn has been broken down for the past few weeks so the grass in our yard has gotten out of hand.  This fox appeared a couple of evenings this week hunting voles in the backyard.

He spent quite a while searching around.

Here you can see the long fluffy tail.

I went to check my bees today for what I thought would be a quick routine inspection.  As I approached the hives I heard loud buzzing and realized it wasn't coming from the hive boxes.  I saw a large cloud of bees buzzing around a bush about 30 feet from the hives and then saw the large ball of bees hanging on a branch about seven feet up.

I think that they had swarmed out of my strong hive just minutes before I found them.  When I first saw them there were a lot of airborne bees but after I left to get a new hive box and came back five minutes later, there were far fewer bees in the air and they were almost all in this large ball.  I put the hive box under the ball as best I could and wanted to cut the branch with one hand and hold the swarm with the other, but the branch was too thick to cut with one hand.  I tried to cut it part way with large clippers, but it broke off in the process and fell, dumping the bees half in the hive box and half on the ground.

I put some frames with foundation in the box hoping the smell of beeswax would help draw them in.  I noticed that the bees on the ground were moving into the box so I just left them alone for a while.

Here the bees are moving into and onto the box from the ground.  There are bees on the hive entrance fanning their wings to spread enticing pheromones to attract the other bees in.

 This frame is from the hive I split off two weeks ago, this being the box that did not get the queen.  The large open cell near the top right of the frame as I hold it here is, I hope, an open queen cell.  I looked for a queen but didn't see here, but, then, I almost never am able to find the queen when  I look for her.

This is a frame from the other hive that had the queen, though this is surely the hive that swarmed taking the old queen away.  This is a frame that appears to be new brood comb by its light tan color, surrounded by capped honey cells.

This by contrast is old her brood comb that is somewhat darker.  You can see the drone brood -- the extended cells along the top of hte frame here.  I did see several drones while I was going through this hive.

There are several queen cells hanging off of the bottom of this frame of capped brood, pollen and honey.  The queen cells are the peanut shaped cells on the bottom of the frame.  This hive had several frames with multiple queen cells so is well equipped to replace the queen that left.  In fact, I took one of those frames and put it in one of my new "nuc" boxes to make a small hive to raise a queen in case the other hive doesn't have one.

This is uncapped larva surrounded by capped honey in the same hive.

This my new hive configuration after the days work was done.  I've gone from one hive two weeks ago to three full size hives and a nuc, though of course all of the full size hives are somewhat weak, with the two at the left without confirmed or laying queens currently.  The "nuc" or nucleus hive, is the small unpainted box in the middle.  The hive that had swarmed is in the box on the right.  They all entered the hive while I was working on the other hives, and seemed to have quieted down nicely.  I certainly hope that they say.  I put feeders on the two split hives without queens as they seemed the two weakest of the the three.

Things are blooming!

I took a walk in my woods this weekend to see if there were any mushrooms up.  I didn't find any mushrooms but did get a chance to take some pictures of wild flowers.  These bluebells grow in a small area along the creek at the base of a steep hill.

I'm not sure what these flowers are called but they were blooming here and there at the base of the hill below the house.

Again, I don't know what this flower is called.  They were blooming near the blue flowers above.

/These white flowers were blooming in a mossy area closer to the creek.

Of course, violets are blooming everywhere.

The Jack in the Pulpit plants grow all through our woods.  This one was growing along the creek near the bluebells.

This large waxy leafed plant was growing near the creek too.  Not sure what it is either.

Red bud trees were blooming along the creek.

If you look close you can see some minnows swimming in the creek here under a rock ledge.  They blend in well, though.

These daffodils come out later than most.  Most of my daffodils are fading now.  These grow with two or three blooms on each stem.

The lilacs are in full bloom and at their most fragrant.  You can smell them as soon as you come out of the front door.

This red delicious apple tree is covered with blooms htis year and very fragrant when you stand among the branches.  My bees and several other pollinating insects were working this tree busily this weekend.

My cherry tree is also in bloom.  I had thought that my peach tree would not bloom at all this year, but it does have several blooms here and there among the foliage, though they seem to have opened later than usual and I don't know if they will produce any fruit.

My rhubarb plants continue to grow well and are even trying to send up some flower stalks this year.  I broke these stalks off so that the plant wouldn't waste too much energy on flowers and seeds that I would rather it put into roots and leaves.  My asparagus plants have been producing this Spring and we have enjoyed some fresh asparagus with supper.

My concord grape vines all have leafed out nicely and seem to be doing well.  They can stand some pruning, which I should do soon (and should have done before now.)

These marquette grape vines are even farther along than the concords, as they break bud and leaf out a little earlier.  These plants are also doing well.  I was concerned that the unusually cold winter would have damaged the grape vines but I don't see any major losses.

I did get a chance to work my bees on Sunday.  The weak hive had finally died out after struggling all Spring.  I had hoped that it would continue to limp along and I was planning to strengthen it with some brood from my other hive, but I waited too long.  I did, though, split my strong hive.  I ended up just splitting the hive evenly.  I had intended a more directed split -- a "cut down" split that is aimed at more honey production.  But, to do that you need to find the queen, and I could not locate here.  I know she was there because there was lots of brood at all stages, but she is tough to pick out of the mass of milling bees.  The hive that got the old queen should continue to boom and produce some honey but the other hive will have to produce a new queen which will take three or four weeks.  There were lots of queen cups where the bees can grow a new queen so I'm not too concerned about their ability to produce one.

Spring in full swing

Spring seems to be aggressively establishing itself now.  Here are red bud and wild plum trees blooming along our back yard fence.  Leaves are just starting to come out on some of the trees.

Spring beauties are blooming all over the forest floor in the woods on either side of our yard.

The dutchman's britches are just about finished blooming but I did find this one blooming in the woods near the garden fence.

Trillium is up and budding as well.

Wild phlox blooming in the woods north of the garden.

 Mayapples are up and unfurling thier leaves above left.  Little oak leaves just opening on a sapling in the woods.  It won't be long before I am hunting for mushrooms.

The tulips are blooming that I planted behind the garden fence to keep the deer from eating them up.

Daffodils blooming under the maple tree in our front yard.  The daffodils seem particularly full of blooms this year.

This clump of different kinds of daffodils is up and blooming along the east garden fence.

More of these daffodils with the sun behind them.

I also got a chance to check my bees again this weekend.  This is the small amount of brood that there is in the weak hive.  Last week I hadn't seen any uncapped brood and no queen so I thought this hive was queenless and was thinking about giving it some eggs from the other hive.  However, this weekend I did see some uncapped brood and the queen is in this picture -- the bee with the long abdomen in the middle near the top of the cluster.  She's laying but not a lot.  I wonder if the small size of the hive and limited availability of nurse bees is slowing her down.  I may, as an experiment, give this hive a frame of capped brood and nurse bees from the other hive to see if this encourages this queen to lay more eggs.

The stronger hive is still doing well.  I went into this hive hoping to see that the brood next had expanded into the top (third) box on the hive, and this frame shows that has in fact happened. I found both uncapped and this capped brood in the top box.

Here is a frame I like to see it -- covered with active busy bees.  I think there was uncapped brood under this mass of bees as well as some pollen.

Here's a frame full of capped brood from the middle of the second box further showing that this hive is booming.  Pollen is seen around the edges of the brood.

This frame from the second box shows brood surrounded by lots of colorful pollen.  Some of the pollen was brilliant red, as well as the orange, yellow and tan colors that you can see here.  There is also a few cells of uncapped brood visible here and some drone cells along hte top of the frame.

I saw a few queen cups but no queen cells that seemed to have active larva in them.  The cell protruding from the bottom of the frame here is a queen cup.  This one had some nectar in the bottom of it that makes me suspicious that there may be an egg in there.  I have never been able to spot the tiny eggs.  On a warm day earlier this week, I had stopped by the hive and seen a large number of bees congregated on the front of the hive and flying in front of it.  I feared they may be preparing to swarm, but I don't think that they did -- there were lots of bees in the hive this weekend and there were no queen sells fully formed on the bottom of the frames as I would expect if the hive had already swarmed.  I hope to split this hive in a week or two.

Here's a frame from the bottom box that shows there is active brood in the bottom box as well, with pollen and nectar around the edges.  This hive seems to be thriving.

The pear trees are just beginning to bloom.  One of the trees is loaded with blooms but the other only has a few.  Since these trees have to cross-pollinate to produce fruit, I'm not sure if I'll get much this year.

Apple blossoms are also starting to open, these on my Enterprise apple tree.  I had thought that my peach trees were completely without blossoms but I did see several blossoms on them today, later than usual for peach blossoms to open.  I've heard that the unusually cold winter will have made it difficult to get a peach harvest this year.

My grape vines seem to have survived the cold winter well.  Here buds are breaking on my Marquette vines.

Buds are also breaking on my Concord grape vines seen here.

My asparagus bed has been sending up some shoots and I have broken off a few to collect in the refrigerator for a meal soon.  There are lots more coming on.  I will need to check it daily probably.

I got my potato bed tilled with my tractor on Friday and got it all planted in the foreground here.

I spent some of the weekend clearing and tilling all of my garden beds and finished with the last ones this morning, but for we got some thunder and gentle rains shortly after lunch today.  I managed to get peas planted before rain hit.

The bluebirds have a nest in the box along my garden fence and I took a picture of the eggs in the next on Saturday.  There seemed to be a lot of coming and going from the nest while I was working in the garden today (Sunday) so I wonder if these eggs have hatched into hungry mouths to feed.

Planting

No pictures today, but I did till up one section of my garden and got potatoes planted tonight.  It took me less than two hours to hook up the tiller, till the ground, cut up the seed potatoes and plant seven 12 foot rows of potatoes.  Daffodils are in full bloom and lilacs and tulips are getting close.  I need to take some pictures.  Grapes seem to have survived the winter well.  I heard my first whippoorwill tonight.  The bluebirds in my garden had five eggs in their nest when I checked last week.

Spring catching up

We were gone for the weekend but I think we had a lot of warm weather and sunshine, which seemed to give Spring a chance to make up for some lost time.  These daffodils were in full bloom on our return late Sunday.

Hyacinths were also now in full bloom in front of the house.

Magnolia blossoms were starting to open on our tree.

In the garden, rhubarb continued to grow vigorously.

The apricot tree was coming into bloom -- always the first fruit tree to bloom.  Even though the weather was cloudy, it was rather late, and a ran storm was approaching from the west a few bees were working these flowers.