white house honey bee swarm

[zbiker]

Source: the washington scene

looks like it's that time of year again
http://washingtonscene.thehill.com/in-the-know/36-news/4129-thousands-of-bees-swarm-white-house

i would love to know if this was the first, second or third cast off swarm from the main hive and how far they traveled from the main hive/nest to their new home. apparently the president didn't know they are their most docile when they swarm and he had little to fear.

Read more: the hill

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you can sure tell it's swarm season in the u.s. now, some folks are reporting record swarm captures this year
http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210361

[Sebastian Doyle]

1. Predicted responses to this story over at RimJob's Digital Trailer Park

"It must be them African killer bees from Kenya" !1!1!!1! :crazy:

"Obama's training commie bee terraist militias to kill us all" !11!!!!1

[IndianaGreen]

8. LMAO!

For the record, the African killer bees came from Brazil. They escaped from a research facility some 30 years ago.

[handmade34]

2. we farmers know...

"A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay.
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon.
A swarm of bees in July
Is not worth a fly"

One of my most awesome experiences was being in the middle of a swarm... I was hiking in the Tibet-Butler Nature Preserve a few days ago and a swarm of bees had settled in a nest that the staff had put up for flickers...

[Cha]

7. Wow! Those are beautiful pics in Nature..

Thank you, handmade..so it's worth a load of hay, eh? Good!

[WeDidIt]

9. That old poem doesn't really hold true

A swarm of bees in July is still worth several frames of drawn comb if you do it right.

[handmade34]

10. I think that

any honeybees, anytime are incredibly valuable... just a nursery rhyme

[Brother Buzz]

3. Most likely the primary swarm

If there is a second swarm, they really don't amount to much and would not garner the attention that the primary swarm would. The primary swarm just about darkens the sky and the sound is truly astounding. After it lites, it can be as large as a beach ball while the next one can be as small as a softball, the third even smaller and will most likely not survive the season.

I collected swarms for many years and stopped bothering with the secondary ones as the have little economic value.

That primary swarm will produce more honey that the original colony, guaranteed.

[zbiker]

5. agreed, it was

probably the primary swarm, but not all second swarms are small, i have seen some that were a very respectable size ( about the size of a soccer ball) with the outstanding cherry blossoms washington has had this year i'll bet they really got into high gear, and yeppers, those swarms can really make wax and honey, it's almost like they are in overdrive lol

[Brother Buzz]

6. The primary swarm contains the proven mated queen...

and a well sorted population working toward a common goal in unison. Those girls will have drawn foundation and the queen will have resumed laying within 24 hours of arriving in their new home. Granted. the population will drop before new bees replace the aging girls, but the shear numbers of bees in the huge swarm help push through the bleak days and assure a thriving hive.

That second swarm will be the size of a softball before young brood hatch and start to repopulate the colony. The low population colony will become demoralized and generally under perform. Too little too late to make any surplus honey the first season.

[KingFlorez]

4. I saw a huge swarm the other day here in California

I just missed getting caught in it, I got up the stairs just in time.