
Bees are amazing creatures, and we’ve all heard about how vital they are to the wild ecosystem, and to our ability to produce food crops.
While Rick and I aren’t keen to raise our own bees we do plant and encourage many types of flowers on our property, to support these and other pollinators.
So we were excited when we got the call this week from a friend who wanted to move one of her hives to our property. One of her groups of bees had decided to swarm and she was hoping to catch and relocate them to a new hive in an area with abundant food.
UPDATE: Although I wasn’t sure of the final result when I recorded the video introduction, our beekeepers returned in the evening and reported positive hive activity and signs that the queen had made it inside the hive. It appears that the bees were settling in better than we’d expected from what we saw this morning. Bees are here for a bit and we’ll let you know what the next couple of weeks bring.
Resources for raising bees:
Betterbee – Education, equipment, and starter bee packages.
Baryard Bees (video) – Overview of beekeeping equipment.
Off-grid with Doug and Stacy (video) – Tips for raising bees.