Backyard Apiary

All the bees left from the swarm installed in to the top bar hive at the Garner garden

I went to the Garner garden to check on the swarm that I put in the top bar hive and add the rest of the top bars I made. There was very light bee traffic at the entrance of the hive and when I opened it up there were only small cluster of bees. I looked through the cluster and didn’t see the queen. It’s really depressing seeing the small cluster of bees continuing to work despite there being no hope for them. I don’t know what happened to the rest of the bees that were put in the hive or what became of the queen.

A few possibilities:

• I never caught the queen
• The queen died or was critically injured during the transport out to the garden
• The queen died on a mating flight
• The queen didn’t like the top bar hive and flew off with the swarm and the bees clustering in the hive were left behind.

I screened up another hive that will be moved out to the garden tomorrow and any bees left in the top bar will be shaken out at the entrance of the new hive. Hopefully they are accepted in to the hive and help boost its productivity.