EAST CONCORD, N.Y. \u2014 They\u2019re the little critters that keep our food supply running: bees. Sometimes, they need a little help getting to their next stop in life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just give them a little bit of smoke to let them know we’re here,\u201d said Amy Barkley, the owner of Snowy Brook Farm, as she approached a beehive.<\/p>\n
All but two of the hives on Barkley\u2019s farm came from swarms.<\/p>\n
\u201cA bee swarm is when the bees have built up enough population in their home colony where they say, ‘OK, we are strong enough; it’s now time to spread our genetics somewhere else,’ ” Barkley explained. “Then half of the hive … they’ll go off and find a new hive.\u201d<\/p>\n
With warming temperatures, swarm season started earlier this spring, but the cold swings left a lot of them a bit discombobulated. They gathered in trees and hard-to-get places, but also picnic tables, fences and grills.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt puts people at risk. It puts the bees at risk,” said Sandra Larsen, the owner of The Eclectic Patch. “So while we would love nature to do their thing, sometimes there’s just not enough space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larsen is the second half of the duo, taking those swarms and bringing them to safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has the science end covered and me as a more spiritual person, like I just genuinely felt for them,” said Larsen.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not all easy going.<\/p>\n
\u201cMultiple eggs per cell,\u201d pointed out Barkley, looking at one of the swarms she saved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Multiple eggs per cell isn’t a good sign, because it could indicate the absence of a queen.<\/p>\n
\u201cHold on. Is that a drone? Is that a new queen?\u201d questioned Larsen, pointing out one bee.<\/p>\n
Lack of a queen could mean death for the hive. So if one hive might be struggling, creative engineering comes into play. Larsen and Barkley took healthy bee eggs from one hive and transferred them to the hive with the questionable queen, in the hopes that it would bolster their numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdopt the babies,\u201d said Barkley to the hive.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease adopt the babies,\u201d added Larsen.<\/p>\n
They’re saving the bees with an eye to business, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bees at my place … they’re local,” said Larsen. “Every single queen that I have swarmed from some place in Western New York, and now they’re living on the eclectic patch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinter comes two weeks earlier. Spring comes two weeks later. So we need to have bees that have acclimated to this exact environment in order to thrive,\u201d added Barkley.<\/p>\n
They got dozens of calls each during the spring swarm season. There can be a second one in August and September.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think of the swarm that I caught in Hamburg, and there were literally no bees left behind,” said Larsen. “There’s a little bit of, I wouldn’t say pride, but it warms your heart knowing, like, ‘wow, OK, they’re going to be OK,’ you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their tip: If you see a swarm, leave it be or call in the pros.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s like anything else. Just be prepared,\u201d said Larsen.<\/p>\n
You can reach out to your local beekeepers association or cooperative extension office for information on finding one of those professionals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAST CONCORD, N.Y. \u2014 They\u2019re the little critters that keep our food supply running: bees. Sometimes, they need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[113,3242,9,11,10,49,12,33018,200],"class_list":["post-328561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-buffalo","tag-environment","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-viktoria-hallikaar","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}