Looking for Home: (insert bee pun)

Today something remarkable happened. As I was cutting some steel bars to make new windows for one of the buildings, I noticed a strong droning sound. There are two beehives here at Hasera, so it was I sound I was used to. But today it was much louder than usual. I went to see what was up, and saw a huge number of bees swarming around one of the beehives. Govinda and Vishnu (one of the workers on the farm) were there throwing water and wood ash into the swarm. You could hear the drone from all over the farm.

I asked Govinda what was happening and he told me that the hive was splitting. Every so often (once or twice a year), a healthy, growing hive will split. A queen is born, and if there are enough bees to follow her out, they go in search of a spot to build a new hive. Thousands of bees were flying around looking for a new place to make home. We threw water and wood ash to irritate the swarm, so that they would quickly settle somewhere near. Otherwise, the queen may travel miles before settling down. When exposed to such irritants the swarm will settle quickly and nearby.

Sure enough the bees began to swarm around and collect on a nearby tree. Having predicted which tree they would land on (Govinda is that good), we had placed a basket smeared with honey on a branch. The bees started investigating the basket, and then Vishnu started gently nudging the bees in. The queen herself (who is all you really need) is nearly impossible to pick out, but based on the movements of the swarm you can guess her location. Once in the basket, the queen and her entourage are escorted to a new hive.

This whole process is more of an art than a science and it requires quick thinking and calmness. It’s easy to get quite excited being surrounded by so many bees zipping about, but stillness of mind is the name of the game. You must come to terms with the fact that you probably won’t get stung, but you absolutely could. Today it went pretty smoothly (the only casualty being Govinda, who got stung on his lip…) and now there are three hives at Hasera.