#offthebeatenpathtexas

So here goes 😄

In keeping with the spirit of this blog, all the pictures below are mine.

Swarmed colony of honey bees. Collin County, Texas. 2018. These were hanging from a small tree branch in a street median. When they swarm like this the original queen of a hive has left the hive in search of a new place to live. The pheromones she produces cause the other bees to clump around her like this. They will chill here for anywhere from an hour to a couple of days before they move on to some place more suitable. Normal bees in this process are extremely unlikely to sting, unless you do something really stupid. That's how i can get so close without getting stung. In fact, the first hive of bees that I started years ago was obtained by putting an empty brood box under a swarm just like this and thumping the branch so that the swarm plopped right into it. Once any stray bees joined the main clump in the box, I put on the lid and off I went. If I had a decent place to put these guys I would have snagged them! :)