Queen Faustina moves out

Last Sunday, we got a call from Queen Faustina's host family saying that there was a large bunch of bees in their oak tree. After a moment of panic, Jerremie zipped over there with his equipment to see if we could capture Queen Faustina before she left with her workers. Here's a picture of the swarm:

Here's a picture of Jerremie, getting ready to catch the swarm:

 

Jerremie had no problem knocking the bees out of the tree into the waiting box. After Queen Faustina fell in, all her worker bees were happy to dive in after her. Any worker bees that got left out seemed to have drifted back into their home hive, happy to wait for their new queen to hatch. I love it when hives swarm. I know that traditional beekeepers say that swarming is bad, and there are all kinds of strategies to stop your hive from swarming (like crushing the developing queen bees in their cells) but I like to think that it's a sign that the bees are thriving and making new families. How could that be a bad thing?

Queen Faustina is now sitting in our back yard in a little temporary hive. We'll be looking for a new home for her soon.

Our host family is a little sad that they have lost Queen Faustina, but they have her new daughter to name. The Queen is gone, long live the new Queen! We'll introduce you to the new queen as soon as the host family gives her a name.

-Rita