Here's the new hive

Here's the new hive (Picasa wouldn't let me use four pictures in the last post for some reason). It's the small hive with no cinder blocks and a flower pot on its top. If the rain quits before I go to bed, I'm going to move this hive to a location about 6 feet across from where it currently is. I can't work the hive where it is without standing in the flight path of Proteus and Bermuda.


The people on the bee forum groups say that if I move the hive, I should put grass in the entry way so that the bees think a branch has fallen across their entrance and they will need to re-orient before flying tomorrow.

We really need the rain in Atlanta, but I want it to stop just enough for me to move this hive....and I forgot to get cinder blocks but I have some bricks in my carport and they will probably do.

I think I'll name this hive Aristaeus for the Greek god of bees. Aristaeus was a great contributor to his world. Among other things,

"Aristaeus is one of the most beneficent divinities in ancient mythology: he was worshipped as the protector of flocks and shepherds, of vine and olive plantations ; he taught men to hunt and keep bees, and averted from the fields the burning heat of the sun and other causes of destruction..." quote from the page in the link above.

Also Aristaeus is the Latin translation of the word and the same webpage goes on to say,
"His name either derives from the word aristos, the most excellent or useful, or from astraios, the starry one."

I think it is fitting since it will most excellent for me to have four hives instead of three and this hive essentially fell from the stars!

Beekeepers think that May is a great time to get a swarm. There's an old beekeeper's saying:

A swarm in May is worth a load of hay
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon
A swarm in July — let them fly