Honey Bees Visit Dr. L.!

On May 8, 2007, I was gardening in the backyard when all of a sudden this huge (to me!) swarm of bees was flying around me.  They didn’t sting me but I nonetheless went to a different part of the yard to work.  I periodically kept going back to look at the bee swarm and I noticed they were “settling down” on one of the lower branches of the cherry tree in my backyard.  It was actually quite fascinating to watch – a few bees were on the branch and then more and more kept coming and piling on to the other bees to form an upside down pyramid type shape.  Via my Heart of Virginia Master Gardener contacts I located a bee keeper who came by the next morning to try to retrieve the swarm.  I feel honored to have given the bees a safe haven while they swarmed.  Please enjoy the pictures below!  The images below are thumbnails, click on a thumbnail to get a high resolution picture.

 Left:  Beekeeper Susie Wilson (in pink shirt) inspects the swarm.

Right:  A close-up of the swarm.

Right:  Susie retrieving the bees off of the cherry tree limb.  That's me kneeling in a bee suit and watching the whole process.  You can see the bee hive box below the limb and in the second picture to the right.  Susie was trying to get the bees to choose the bee hive box as their new home.

Left:  Susie was worried the bees would not choose her bee hive box since they had been on the branch overnight and thus the scouts may have already found another place.  Susie left the hive box for the bees but they began to amass on the the cherry tree branch again.

Right:  The bees have essentially swarmed out of the box and are back on the tree limb. 

After leaving the bees alone for a spell we came back and the bees were no longer on the branch.  They were also not in the bee hive box.  Thus they must have already found another place to make their hive.  I've seen quite a few honey bees in my yard this summer and wonder if they are from this same hive...

Left:  My colleague Dr. Jackie Hall who brought her camera over and took most of these pictures.  I like this picture because there are several bees buzzing around in it (I especially like the bee right below the tip of the swarm - check out the high resolution picture!).  Unfortunately Jackie is not in focus as well as the bees (blame me, the photographer on this one!). 

Right:  Another close-up of the swarm with a bee in flight.  According to Susie, this was a rather small swarm.