So amazing! We hadn't gotten to cleaning up and removing the hive from the rain, and then last Wednesday M was working out in the yard. He heard a sound that he described later as sounding like several leaf blowers starting at once. He got inside the house, and remembered my camera is in the desk. I'm so excited he got photos!!!
He gave the bees a few hours to settle in, and then checked on the hive. They had settled in. We left the bees alone until Sunday afternoon. We wanted to give them new brood boxes, and some new frames as well.
Over the days between the swarm arriving and the hive inspection, we saw the bees robbing the extra brood box. Now I'm thinking the cloud of bees I saw the Sunday before were scouts. I'm thrilled they found our hive desireable.
Sunday we decided to formally meet the new bees.
The old hive. The spare brood box was left to the side for robbing. The makeshift table (in pots of oil to keep ants off) tipped over against the fence, definitely time to go!
The new brood boxes. M picked up frame spacers to go inside, they hold 8 or 9 frames each. I have to say - very handy for putting frames in! No careful thumb and finger measuring.
We moved the old frames and bees into the red brood box, and added the blue brood box with frames. We did not see the queen, but we did see a few bee clusters while we worked, so we thought it a safe guess that the queen was among them. The bees are doing a good job removing the mold that was on the frames. We're going to give them a couple more weeks before the next inspection. At that time our plan is to give them a new mite board and bottom board.
The Urania name (the muse of astronomy) seemed too appropriate. A swarm descended from on high, and found a home here. I'm thrilled. :)
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