New honeybee families
Photo Peep Käspre
Translation: Liis
Last Tuesday’s swarm
European honey bee; Western honey bee Euroopa meemesilane Apis mellifera mellifera
With the beginning of June the urge to swarm wakens in bees – the weather is beautiful and beekeepers are kept busy.
All who have seen the departure of a swarm can assure that it is a splendid view. The bees have so much to do with family forming that there is no need to fear being stung. The honey-stomachs of the swarmers are full of nectar on going swarming, so stinging is more difficult too.
Outside the swarming hive ever more bees appear until the air is thick with them and a strange drone is heard. Before the swarm leaves the bees cluster in a tree near the hive or on a building in waiting for the family’s queen bee, then flying to an earlier selected location. A young female bee, or several, stay in the hive for the new generation, with eggs, the brood, bees that care for the eggs and not yet go out of the hive and of course the collected honey – there is everything for starting life activities…
The weight of the swarm in the photo can be estimated at almost two and a half kilos.
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