Bees on the Move at Slide Ranch

     It is swarming season for bees all across the northern hemisphere and we at Slide Ranch have lately been witness to the wonderfully magnificent exploratory nature of swarming honeybees.  It is notoriously difficult to keep bees from swarming on a yearly basis and with the recent departure of our resident beekeeper, Blair and I were left with thousands of little winged travelers, in search of a new home.  

     The first swarm flew on a sunny day during summer camp training and landed on a branch of coyote brush near the secret garden.  Blair and I pieced together the small bits of knowledge we collectively held, made a few phone calls to knowledgeable friends around the country, including the beekeper at neighboring Green Gulch and went to the branch with a bucket and a screen.  I shook the bees into the bucket and covered them with the screen.  The swarming bees clutched tightly to each other surrounding and protecting their queen.  A few hours later, we poured the bees out of the bucket just in front of a bee box, complete with frames, and they crawled right in and made it their home.

     The excitement ensued in the following weeks when a separate swarm took flight and began making a hive within the walls of our residential kitchen, just at the edge of the garden.  Again Blair and I donned beekeeping suits but this time went to the wall with crowbars and some smoke to calm the bees as we removed them from their new home.  We prepared a second box and put the bees there.  A few days later, more bees landed in the wall of the kitchen and again we scooped them up and put them into a third box, this one we sent to live with our Executive Director in Stinson Beach. 


     Honeybees that thrive in warmer climates tend to struggle somewhat in the coastal climate of Slide Ranch where summer days are oftentimes cold and foggy but we have seen our fair share of sun this summer and the bees seem to be happily drinking nectar, pollinating plants all around the area, and filling their combs with delicious honey.  There is an old English beekeeper's saying that goes "...a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon."  Though we may not be pining for a silver spoon, it would be a tremendous joy to harvest honey in the fall from our very own bees here at Slide Ranch.  We will watch over them and care for them, learning as we go, with great anticipation of the sweetness that fall will bring.

Here is a photo of one of the swarms that took flight at the corner of our 100-year-old Commons: