I had a busy day yesterday. I finished a flower bed in front of the house. Did some laundry and started to mow and the belt broke on the mower. The yard is going to need to be baled before I am able to get to it. For the best part of the day: I caught a swarm. That is also my job. So now I have caught 2 swarms this year, to the left are some pics. Swarms are the honeybees way to reproduce. The old queen leaves the hive with some, okay, in this case a lot of loyal bees. The old hive will have a new queen when she hatches out. Thus, a new family. What you see to the left is a portion of the old hive with the old queen. The bees ball up on a branch or anything and then scout bees look for a new home. They do not intend to stay here, they are seeking a new home. When the scout bees come back with directions(can you tell I give presentations to little kids) to the new home, they will all go to this new location. Often, this is an unwanted location. Like in a chimney or in the walls of a house or building. Or, even attics. We do not remove bees from buildings but if people see a swarm and call, I go and collect them. They are typically very docile. Why? Because they have no home or eggs to protect at this point. The queen is typically in the center of the ball of bees where she is well protected by other worker bees. A swarm of bees, when flying, often looks like a big cloud and it kind of moves like a cloud. I hope to eventually tape one in the air. First I'll have to talk the Beekeeper into a video camera. Sorry, but the pictures are in reverse order. So start at the bottom. Have a great night!