Because I am a gardener, I decided to start keeping bees, since we all know the bees are in trouble, and anyone who gardens or farms knows we need pollinators! Last year we switched to Russian queens, which are hardier, and this spring one of our hives was doing so well, it swarmed! For those of you who don't know, when a hive gets full, new queen cells are laid to grow new queens. The new queen hatches and since she is young (and weaker than the old queen), she stays with the hive. The old queen who is stronger, swarms, taking her bees with her after they have eaten lots of honey, and they go in search of a new home to set up a new hive taking their honey reserves. Incredibly, I was there exactly when they swarmed with my beekeeping friend, and she had brought an extra box to catch a swarm "just in case".