Friday, April 1, 2011

This morning's suprise

This morning Cathy went into the dog yard with her whippets so they could get some exercise. As she stood out in the warm morning sun enjoying the cool morning breeze she became aware of an intense buzzing back the way she had come. Looking back at the gate she had just passed through she saw this swarm of bees on a low limb of the tree.

At first we thought that it was a hive as we both went out at different times to photograph it, but after awhile the swarm became airborne, moving to the west side of the house and into the olive tree. Fortunately, when the swarm moved all the dogs and we were in the house.

Just over a year ago, a beekeeper from Michigan had hives of bees near here for the winter. The bees all abandoned the hives, the empty hives were taken away and a very upset beekeeper went back to his home state. Apparently, if one intends to keep bees then they have to be tended to. No sign of masses of dead bees were found so it was theorized that they had just moved off on their own. I think that this is one of those swarms of bees who are looking for a new summer home. If they move farther from the house we will be so happy to have them as neighbors but if they want to live in the olive tree then we'll have to have them moved.

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