This is when my bees first started getting ready to swarm, the ENERGY around the hive was off the charts. I slowed down the video because it was so amazingly cool to watch. Quite literally a birth - the birth of a new colony!
Background: I use a Top Bar hive to house my bees, I am a very small operation and I keep wonderful, gentle, winter-hardy, genetically strong Saskatraz bees. This type of bee was bred in Saskatchewan using natural selection and they are naturally cold-hardy and mite-resistant. I keep them for only a couple of reasons really: to help all bees regain their natural strength and to simply add more healthy bees to our world. Nature knows what she is doing, and it’s blindingly obvious that we humans do not.
I know there are many beekeepers who would be horrified to hear this because it goes against conventional wisdom, but other than feeding in spring (and only if necessary) I do not interfere in any way with them. I do not medicate them, smoke them, dust them, transport them, or take their honey (well maybe a taste now and then.) I do not check for mites or “treat” them for mites - their genetics are already adapted, and the less I mess with them the better. Their natural ability to handle such things will grow stronger if I don’t douse them with unnatural substances and chemicals as the rest of the bee world is apparently so enamored of.
What I DO do, is plant a lot of pollinator-friendly plants and masses of flowers, I leave water out for them everywhere, I don’t use any kind of pesticide or dangerous chemical fertilizers on my property, and I monitor them in winter. So far they have been very healthy and hardy. I want my bees to adapt and grow stronger, and I am beyond thrilled that they swarmed this summer, which indicates they were healthy enough to do so!
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 ❤️
Bees swarming!