Cool bees!

Last Sunday we had new neighbors move into the chicken coop. The chicken coop is an old two story out building that used to be a granary. Mike's brother Mark converted it to a chicken coop about 10 years ago. The building consists of two story wooden grain bins so there is actually both an inner and an outer wall. When we first moved to the farm, one wall housed a honey bee hive. The neighbors across the road actually used to live on our farm and told us there had been a hive in the wall as long as they knew. The bees caused us no problems so we just let them be. About 5-6 years ago the hive died out. Maybe one of the many diseases or pests that have been plaguing the honey bee population of late?

So last Sunday at 7am, I walk into the chicken coop to feed our four "pet" laying hens that live in there and there are about a dozen or so honey bees buzzing around INSIDE the coop. This is very unusual. In fact it was weird enough that when I got back to the house, I mentioned to Mike that I thought something was up with the honey bees.

That afternoon, Charlie, one of the high school boys that works on the farm, was helping me clean out the newer barn where most of our laying hens live. At about 4:30pm, I was walking past the coop and I heard them: a swarm of honey bees buzzing above the roof of the coop. I called Charlie over and asked if he had ever seen a honey bee swarm before. He had not. So we stood there and watched them. I think I have seen around 4 swarms show up at the farm over the years we have lived here. Every time I just watch, totally fascinated by how these bees work. They hovered over the coop and then began forming a ball of bees under the eaves of the building. The picture above was taken about 6pm that evening. Over the course of the night, they moved in. They are welcome residents of the coop. They will do a good job pollinating the crops. And the best part? There was a swarm of honey bees that moved into our old farm house last year. After identifying which wall they lived in, the plan was to call a bee keeper to cut open the wall and remove the bees. It was going to be a mess that is for sure, but had to be done. Well, these are the bees that moved into the coop. We guess that because we had some gutter work done this spring that we disturbed where they were living in the house so they moved. Perfect!

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Productive day on the farm. I got the entire yard mowed (about 4 acres worth) except for the trimming that still needs done. The pasture where the chickens hang out during the afternoons needs mowed yet, but that will probably get done tomorrow. Mike and Ed got a lot more plastic laid in preparation for planting. Mike said there a total of 48 rows of plastic laid. Because a couple of the high school boys are on a family vacation this week and the planting needs done now, I volunteered to ride the transplanter tomorrow. My first time ever. Should be interesting.