So yesterday around 10 am a black Swallowtail butterfly landed squarely on my noggin as I was heading in the house door, I called my visiting parents to check it out. Mom reminded me it's a good luck sign for that to happen .

I changed to a white tee grabbed my veil and smoker and headed down to my hives having one last one to reduce boxes in winter prep and inspect all the others. Went to that box and as my father drove the mower close and in front of the hives .

I noticed a whole heck of a lot of bees around me low and high I thought they where coming out of the hives after Dad of course he's veiled up long sleeved and had his gloves on. Myself, not veiled up in just my tee and a cold smoker. It looked like it was about to get real hot real quick, I was about to high tail it. I realized quickly that I wasn't being stung, bumped, buzzed or even looked at . I was in the middle of a late season swarm coming in and landing in a tree limb about 100 feet away. I know late season swarms don't stand much of a chance of over wintering but what the hey. To make a long story short I captured the swarm in a nuc box. Then had enough frames and bees in the hive I was going to reduce to make a good size split cha-ching. Sunday I'll figure out which has a queen and which needs one. So I increased by two hives, a good bee day. I was very pleased with my butterfly luck to that point:D but it gets better .

At 5pm I took my almost five year old to the American Legion/Catawba County fair and guess what? I won 1st place in Light honey and 1st place in Dark honey and place 2nd in Amber Honey almost a clean sweep. A good day for luck? I should have bought a lottery ticket .

I would buy a ticker if I were you. Got one drawing tomorrow and one Sat. Might as well see if it carries over.

I'm a beekeeper myself.
I've had things like that happen before and I just put them back in the original hive! lol
I've also introduced the swarming bees into a smaller hive by putting newspaper between the old and new bees.
I'm sure you've heard of all this before though.

Got 30 gallons last year and only 15 this year. Lost down to 2 hives and had to purchase 3 more to make 5 total.
I got up to 13 hives at one point...

Best honey in the world is the honey from your hives!

Where are you guys' bees coming from? In Randolph County it looked like the honey bees were almost wiped out. All I've seen pollinating in a couple to three years are bumblebees.

JCline0429 wrote:Where are you guys' bees coming from? In Randolph County it looked like the honey bees were almost wiped out. All I've seen pollinating in a couple to three years are bumblebees.

I bought two hives in spring 2011 after moving back from TX, just split them to increase up to eleven now. Lots of beekeeps in Catawba County. So I have a neighbor to thank for the donation of the swarm. I've inspected all mine and am quite sure none of them were the source of the swarm.

Have some more to tell about a surprise while fortifying that swarm box with some capped brood and bees yesterday. I'll fill ya in later.

Wish you had taken your luck yesterday to Montana, they could have certainly used it.

Miss being around bees, grew up with a smoker in hand out on the farm.