It must be swarm season

Holy moly! The bees have swarmed again! This afternoon they started roaring, and a cloud of bees zoomed up and down the creekbed next to the beeyard (that’s Kimberley, looking at the madness of bees in the creek). There were bees crawling all over the ground.

Then they boiled out of Betty’s hive, bearded across the front, and poured out onto the ground to make a big puddle of bees.

Bees filled the air around the hive. The puddle on the ground grew larger.

But they didn’t fly away. After about 15 minutes, the puddle of bees crawled up the leg of the hive, forming chains to cross the waterfilled tupperware.

They clustered on the bottom of the hive. That’s where we left them (we had to get back to working on the magazine).

We also found a queen wandering around on the ground. She was attended by a retinue of about 15 bees. Then she was gone. We’re not sure if she flew away or crawled under a leaf.

We have no idea what’s going on. But it’s dramatic. It’s exciting.

And terribly exhilarating to be in the middle of a cloud of swarming bees.