Today I discovered the fourth swarm in the same shrub about 50 feet from my hives. At the beginning of the year I only had two hive. I added a third on in March. How did I end up with four swarms? I don’t really know. Maybe it came from off my property, drawn by the smell of the three queens who had very recently taken up temporary residence there. Whatever the reason, it was one too many swarms for me, so I passed it along to my neighbor and president of the Frederick County Beekeepers Assoc (FCBA). It all happened so fast that I didn’t even get a picture. And if I didn’t get a picture, maybe it was just a dream and never happened at all.
I also did an inspection of my Boston hive. It has been 17 or 18 days since the swarm from Boston, and I believe that the new queen would have been able to mature and get in her mating flights by now. I didn’t see her, nor did I see any eggs or larvae, but I am not going to worry about it. I will look for her or signs of here in another week or 10 days. I did something that I might regret. I swapped the top and bottom boxes again. I did this at the beginning of the season, moving the heavier/fuller box to the bottom. This time around the top box was again the much heavier one, so I moved it back to the bottom. I’m not sure this was a good idea, so I may just inspect and not swap the Anaheim hive boxes when I get a chance to inspect them.
