False Wall for Demonstrating Structural "Cutout"

During the months of May and June, many honey bee colonies in NJ decide it's time to swarm. Swarming is the mechanism whereby a hive decides to split with the existing or old queen leaving with about half the population of the hive just before the new queens emerge.

Once a hive has issued or "pitched" a swarm, the swarm clusters while scout bees search out a new home. While it is usually a hollow in a tree or an empty managed hive, it can often be inside the walls of a structure, building honey comb and storing honey in the spaces between sheet rock and studs inside walls.

The South Jersey Beekeepers Association (SJBA) ingeniously built a section of false wall and populated it with a colony of bees for six weeks so that the removal, or "cutout" from inside a building could be demonstrated. To the left of the false wall are SJBA members Erin Teeples and Jenna Champion.

(Photo by Janet A. Katz)