“But I only Wanted 2 hives!” A Second Year Beekeeper’s Conundrum
We hear this story every year. The beekeeper’s vision is to only have two hives, but the bees are going to do what they are programmed to do and make more colonies every year. Your colonies/hives are going to double every year. Like every animal on earth, they are driven to reproduce – and they do that by swarming. Despite the fact that all beekeepers know this, they often seem surprised and alarmed when they realize it is going to happen every spring (yes, EVERY year, again and again). Part of this surprise stems from the fact that they only wanted two hives, so their planning stopped there. Well......