Today is a very exciting day at Mountain Jewel. We have homed our first feral colony!
Last night Ini closed up the bees in their swarm box.
This is the first swarm we caught that was moved temporarily to our mentor's place. We did this to help the bees reorient to their new location. This morning we had the pleasure of moving our first swarm to their permanent home!
This is a fantastic example of allying with natural rhythms and cycles.
By simply understanding a little of bee biology, we are are building an attractive home that feral swarms are interested in. By inviting honey bees into our apiary, we are also selecting for healthy genetics and resiliency. All we are doing is building an attractive home that feral swarms are choosing to inhabit.
In this vlog, we share this process with you all.
We are overjoyed with our first successful swarm acquisition of the season and have officially established our natural woodland apiary. We moved the swarm box from our land to our mentor's place for 10 days and just last night brought them home. This was to ensure they didn't get disoriented when we moved them only a short distance from the tree they were caught onto the hive stand.
This is a feral or wild bee swarm meaning it is the product of the natural swarming instinct of a healthy bee colony.
It does not need us to survive and is the result of the natural process a healthy colony goes through as they outgrow their home. They heaven't been artificially bred or fed sugar or medicated, and are therefore healthier and more resilient.
Join us as we house the first feral colony in our woodland apiary.
For other posts on Catching Wild Bees check out:
Why Catch Wild Swarms
Hanging Swarm Traps
Catching a Swarm
Relocating the Swarm
How to Set Up An Apiary
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