WE BEE AT THE READY!

Who could have guessed when the phone rang during breakfast service that our very excited friend and neighbor, Karen Mackenzie, artist, and owner of the Desert Pearl gallery here in town, would report that her wild colony of honeybees living in a half-dead tree in her yard, was apparently swarming. We weren’t exactly certain of the nature of their movement so we dispatched Joshua to inspect the situation in person.

Suited up (safety first always as we didn’t know their temperament) and armed with a nuc carrier, he determined that indeed the colony had split leaving one queen and half the population in the tree while the others had swarmed around a bush. The new queen most assuredly was smack dab in the middle of the swarm. Joshua made quick work of setting up the nuc carrier and the girls and their royal charge piled right in.

Everyone involved remained calm, cool, and collected as Joshua brought the new girls to their new digs gently and without incident.

Once most of the bee girls were in the new box, we left the lid and carrier at the entrance where Joshua observed the remaining folks quickly finding their new home.

And now we wait and observe both the original colony in Karen’s tree as well as the new setup. If we did in fact get a swarm with a new queen, they should settle right in making it their own and foraging to build their stores. If we didn’t get a queen, their original home is down in the Gulch, easily within 5 miles of my home, and they are apt to go home. We are crossing fingers for the former outcome of course. They conducted themselves with great disinterest in us and were friendlier than might have been expected given their upheaval. And speaking of . . . calm, cool, and collected . . . take a closer look at who joined the move-in at a disinterested distance of only about 5 feet. What a cat that Braveheart Primo!!!!