I live with bees. Not sure who's the keeper yet. I just started last
year. Had a wonderful new experience with swarming/mating flight
Saturday. March, I had thought I lost my hive (or as good as.) The
numbers were way down and all the other hives in the area, and all the
hives of several friends who had gotten bees last year from the same
source were lost. I got a new batch in an additional hive and then the
first started picking up too. Well, they must have decided to replace
the queen. They came out of the old hive and started circling it,
raising to a spiral just above it. Then they beelined to the base of a
tree and spiraled up it in a line til they got reassembled in a cloud at
the top. I went in to call an experienced beekeeper. After a bit I went
out and they came down to a cloud around me (I've had that happen
before, the kids call it Mama walking the bees. One son also walks
bees.) Anyway, I walked to the hive and they went back in except for a
small cluster at the top of the tree. I went in to get ready to go out
and when I came out a queen and her court landed on me. I overreacted
and shook them off. They reformed their circle on the ground. The queen
in the middle and 5 then 7 surrounding her head in, tail out, around her
in an even circle. I got out a box and put a board down for her/them to
walk onto and lifted her/them into a box but scared some of them off.
We'll see if they return to the original and overthrow or begin anew a
third colony. My project for this sunny day is to build another hive,
just in case.