This winter I had several hives starve out because I did not feed them at critical times during
bad weather.  I wanted to try and do something with them before they were destroyed by wax
moths, so I brought one home and put it on the cement pad behind my house, hoping that I
would get a phone call about a swarm I could go pick up and install in it (as I had previously
gotten calls and already picked up a couple of swarms).  A couple of days later, I saw a lot of
bee activity around it, so I thought that maybe my other hives had found some stores in it or
something and were robbing it, but I sure thought that there was no honey left in it.  The
following day I looked closer, and could see bees bringing pollen into it, so I realized that a
swarm had moved into it while I wasn't looking.  Nice large colony of gentle bees.  It probably
couldn't have been better if I'd bought them.  The only problem is that the hive is in an
inconvenient spot so I will have to move it.

A day or so later, I moved another empty hive (same situation) and put it several feet away
from the first one, again, intending to clean it up and not sure of what I was going to do with
it, but hoping I could find a swarm to install in it.  The following day, a swarm had moved
into it while I was gone to work.  All my starveouts have colonies in them now.  My son and
I were talking about whether there was anyone else in our neighborhood keeping bees, and
he told me he had seen someone with hives in their yard a couple of streets over.  They must
have been bees from that neighbor is my guess.  That's the first time I've ever caught swarms
without having to drive somewhere for them.  That makes 4 swarms I've installed this season
so far--well, actually 2--the other 2 installed themselves--nice bees too.  I buy queens from
time to time, but I have yet to buy a package of bees.

On an aside, I got a call about a nice big swarm at the end of last week and asked the folks
how far off the ground it was.  They said 8 feet.  When I got there, I found it was 8 feet above
the WATER hanging over a pond.  I'm good, but not THAT good.

Layne Westover, College Station, Texas

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