Came home after a day distributing 26 packages and resistant queens to
20-odd new beekeepers including some kids, who had finished our
beekeeping course here in very rural piedmont South Carolina.  I'm sure
our late mentor, Paul LeRoy, would have been (or is) proud of the
turnout.  The demo bees we installed behaved very nicely, too, and the
50 MPH winds from yesterday calmed down some just in time.  Came home to
find my first swarm, an observation hive I had crowded dekiberately.
Also the 2 colonies at the demo location, which I last worked in April
2004, were booming and ready to swarm themselves despite having 5 and 6
boxes  left on all winter.  Haven't been in most of my home beeyard (38
hives), also untreated by anything for 4 years, then only formic or
nothing back to 1997.  The whole time I've been bringing in assorted
resistant stocks and letting the best mate (splits mostly, and drone
manipulation).  It's a pretty motley crew but the genetics are
definitely starting to prove themselves.  The observation queen was
lightly clipped and at eye level on a wild bush.  A few snips with the
loppers and they were hived, even saw my marked queen.  All in all an
excellent beekeeping day, tho my apologies if this is slightly
incoherent, no time to edit.  Carolyn in Plum Branch SC

Mea McNeil wrote:

> To respond to the line of discussion on where and when the first
> swarms are
> appearing, we finally got our first swarm call on 4-1.
>

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