Every so often in beekeeping one's timing is perfect! I was lucky enough to witness this royal birth and observe the first interaction between a new queen and her colony.  During her hatching an nurse bee was carefully overseeing the process.  Once the queen made it out of the cell she moved to the other side of the frame and placed her abdomen down in a cell while the surrounding bees checked her out. What have you been lucky enough to catch happening in your colonies?

One of the most common questions I hear is "why did they pick my house?"  Location location location! Okay just kidding...honeybees are successful at siezing opportunity and if a cozy place with free ac, heating and Internet with an open door becomes available they don't pass it up.  This old farm house in Woodbine is the perfect place with plenty of gaps, cracks and roomy wall voids. Want to keep them out?  Make sure you seal any penetrations into the exterior with caulking

Sometimes when I'm out without equipment I get a swarm call and I need to get there quickly and an empty cardboard box will do. Here I had the queen caged in a Nuc box and I'm scooping enough of the bees into the Nuc to get the marching started. Most people are in disbelief when they see bees being handled but the fact is bees are used to being touched. Their sisters usually groom, walk over and under them multiple times a minute inside the colony. Take a look...no stings

Met some great folks today in Cockeysville. Found a fairly small colony in the attic space above a window. I was able to remove a bit of wood covered by some aluminum siding and replace it without leaving a trace I was there. The bees were super gentle and have been given a home in my apiary.

I received a call that some roofers had found honeybees in the roof of a home in New Windsor. I was a little skeptical because usually it gets too hot in attic spaces for honeybees but sure enough the girls found a nice spot that was cooled by a stone chimney. You can see above the comb was built in the space between rafters with the outer most rafter turned flat giving them an approximate 6 x 6 x 8.5 inch triangle space. Getting all the comb section out was a real challe