This started to come to mind as we were weighing our hives earlier this week. The first two were about 76 and 110 pounds. The third, adding in the honey harvest we had removed, was around 250. But unlike the song, the big one never swarmed.
Seventy-six pounds weight on the dinky hive
A hundred and ten pounds weight on the ‘tween.
Two hundred and fifty five on the largest hive
The strongest one we’ve ever seen.
Seventy six fair maids did a waggle dance
A hundred and ten more girls danced the round.
Recruiting streams, no ends, of their closest friends
To the finest flowers they had found.
There were fifty open queen cells in the nursery
Chowing down, chowing down, fast as they can grow.
Larvae in most every size and capped brood that would pop my eyes,
A full super of them don’t you know!
There were nectar stores and pollen stores and honey too,
Worker bees, nose to knees, doing their bee stuff.
Working down there in the gloom, there was hardly any room,
The queen said that she had had enough.
Seventy-six guard bees at the opening,
A hundred and ten dead wasps on the ground,
They did a small victory dance then resumed their stance,
No more invaders to be found.
Seventy-six brave scouts led the swarm away,
A hundred and ten feet up in a tree.
The queen enjoyed the breeze with her countless bees,
Buzzing just to make a fool of me.
Seventy-six guard bees at the opening,
A hundred and ten pounds down as of late.
He proudly stood alone, the one and only drone,
Dreaming of the girls whom he would date.
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