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Bees
on the loose!
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The bees from our hive display inside
the museum "swarmed". That means that the queen
split her brood in half and left our indoor hive. She left
because the hive was full and that's how they populate themselves,
by splitting in two. She went out and found another living
space. It was our screech owl nest box on the trail about
200 yards from the museum! She and her workers built a hive
inside the nesting box. The 30,000 bees in the box posed
a danger to passers by on the trail, so we had it removed
by a local professional beekeeper, Carrol Rhodes. He
actually helps us maintain our bees inside too. The
original hive inside will grow a new queen and rejuvenate
their numbers. A queen is grown by feeding one larvae "royal
jelly".
Carrol had to pry open the owl box to get into the hive to scrape it out while
all the bees are there. He cut apart the combs and placed them in a commercial
built beehive to establish a new hive. There were over 100 pounds of honey
in the hive which Carroll harvested and we got to taste. It was melaleuca
flower honey so not very tasty. There were also about 80 pounds of combs
and brood bees that were transferred to the new hive. The queen first flew
to a nearby tree with hundreds of her workers but eventually settled into the
hive before evening set. The bees were very angry to have their hive ripped
apart but settled in fine in their new home after a day. |
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Photos courtesy of Charles O'Connor
(Lee County Environmental Education Department) |
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