Country Time

Critters are all over this time of year. We have a family of 7 foxes waking us up in the middle of the night with their odd, honking noises, deer, all types of quail, doves and other birds, and recently, we have had several bee swarms.

They make Ryan squeamish, but I find them facinating.When an existing hive gets too big, a bunch of bees, break off to find a new location. The swarms aren't dangerous. Bees are only aggresive when they are protecting their young or food, and since these bees are kicked out of the hive, they don't have either.  
What is amazing is that inside the swarm, there is a sort of democratic process that goes on. When the bees are forced to move, "scout" bees go and find a new location. When the scouts come back, they stand, two at a time, next to each other and do a little dance to communicate what they've found (size, location, etc. of the potential spot) to the rest of the bees. The rest of the bees then "vote" by moving nearer to the scout they choose. The scout with the most "bee-votes" wins. Then another scout comes in, and they vote again. They do this until there is only one scout left, and that scout leads them to the new site. Amazing right!?

The swarm on the move. You can see the cloud of bees against the sky.

They find a branch, the queen settles down there and the rest of the bees pile on top and all around her. This was a small swarm. Another one came this last weekend and it was two or three times this size. Note to self: Keep the garage door closed!

The first swarm was collected by our local honey-farm. They will re-home the bees and use them to make local Atascadero Honey. In case you were wondering, yes, that is a shop-vac attached to a wooden box in a wheel-barrow. They sure know how to get things done around here!