Today my Dad called me at about 12:15 or so to tell me it looks like the Alpha Hive is swarming. He took a few pictures. I headed that way to check it out. Found, thousands of bees hanginging out on the right front corner of Alpha Hive. Two weeks ago they didn't look like that had these numbers!!!
I started by trying to sift through the mass of bees for a queen. I didn't find one. I opened up the hive and started looking through the frames for the queen. While I was searching for her through the frames I kept hearing a high pitched buzzing/chirping sound. When I did find the frame she was on, it was the queen making those weird sounds. I watched her for a couple of minutes while she was doing the chirping behaviour. She would move around draw herself down to the comb then make the strange sound, then move off a bit and do it again. She did this all over the frame that she was on. I didn't see any attendants with her while she was doing this. So shes either rallying the forces to swarm or she is searching for other queens. But since there were thousands and thousands of bees on the outside of the hive...seems like that was a swarm call.
Alpha Hive Swarm Pictures
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