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The Honeybees like grapes too!!

A swarm flew over my barn into the vineyard. The air was alive with honeybees looking for a new home. I followed them, hoping they would land soon -- and they did, on a Delaware grape vine.


A swarm is just a bunch of honeybees that became too crowed where they previously lived and left with most of the bees and the queen. They left behind some of the honeybees and some queen cells to that the old location will continue normally. This swarm landed right on a Delaware grape vine. Most swarms like this will stay where they are only long enough until they find a new permanent home.

I decided to give them a new home. I stacked up a few honey supers below the swarm to make them close and then shook the branches of the vine quite hard so that the bees fell into the new box. They hopefully will decide that they like their new location and will stay there. In a few days I will move the colony to one of our bee yards.

Unfortunately this is late in the year for a swarm (July) and it will not produce a crop this year. There is an old saying, "A swarm in May is worth a ton of hay, a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon, a swarm in July ain't worth a fly."

South Eastern Michigan Beekeepers Association