What a busy few weeks!
On 16th July we moved The Paddies, with their new black queen, into a 3' hive and also gave them a comb of capped brood from The Posties to bolster their numbers and provide some nurse bees for when the queen starts laying. We were a bit worried as there was no sign that she had, as yet.
Then, on 19th July The Posties swarmed AND sent off a cast at the same time. They were only a swarm themselves 8 weeks ago! As The Nectans still appeared to be queenless, we put the cast in with them with a newspaper barrier. We put the swarm into a nucleus box and called them The Meadows.
On 21st July we were called out to West Mill to catch a swarm. We only had our emergency flowerpot hive to put them in. We had an audience as there were several visiting children. Fortunately I had thrown all our spare suits into the car before we left.
We rang Ruth and fortunately she had transferred the swarm we gave her into her hive, so she said she'd return our nuc box to us. She did this on 23rd and I transferred the West Mill cast into it. Unfortunately the flowerpot fell over during the process, spilling all the bees onto the ground. We managed to scoop most of them up and I just hope we didn't lose the queen. Fred and Lesley, at Southole, are going to have this nuc.
Checked The Paddies and the queen is finally laying thank goodness.
On 31st July, my birthday, I just went for a stroll up to see the bees and noticed activity in one of the pine trees. It was a swarm! Not sure where it came from at first, but we suspect it was yet another cast from The Posties. However it was very big, so it seems very strange. These we have named The Pines and had to put them in the flowerpot!
On 2nd August we were phoned by a couple in our group to say they had a swarm in their compost bin. We talked them through capturing it and hiving it. They were able to borrow suits and a nuc box from another couple in the group. Quite gratifying as several more members of the group now have bees and are also helping each other. Makes for a much more interesting group for the future.
On 3rd August we borrowed one of the hives from The Barton and after Mick waterproofed the roof with some roofing felt, we transferred The Pines into it and gave them a couple of new bars. They were already busy building comb. We gave them two jars of feed.
We finally decided that The Nectans had to go. On inspection they clearly had laying workers, so were still queenless, despite all our efforts. We took them to the bottom of the field and brushed all the bees off the combs. As expected they made their way back up the field and went into the other hives. They were particularly interested in The Meadows for some reason. There seemed to be little fighting at the entrances so we hope they mostly found new homes.
We checked The Paddies and they had 2 combs with some lovely capped worker brood on them. They are still a small colony, so we will have to keep an eye on them, but they are heading in the right direction.
So, briefly, we were up to 7 colonies, but now have 6. Only one of those has a new home to go to, so we should be going into the winter with 5 colonies of our own.
We still need to check that The Dolphins and Posties are OK, after their swarms and casts and we need to move the Meadows into the vacated hive the Nectans were in.
On 16th July we moved The Paddies, with their new black queen, into a 3' hive and also gave them a comb of capped brood from The Posties to bolster their numbers and provide some nurse bees for when the queen starts laying. We were a bit worried as there was no sign that she had, as yet.
Then, on 19th July The Posties swarmed AND sent off a cast at the same time. They were only a swarm themselves 8 weeks ago! As The Nectans still appeared to be queenless, we put the cast in with them with a newspaper barrier. We put the swarm into a nucleus box and called them The Meadows.
On 21st July we were called out to West Mill to catch a swarm. We only had our emergency flowerpot hive to put them in. We had an audience as there were several visiting children. Fortunately I had thrown all our spare suits into the car before we left.
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| What a great location for a swarm |
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| Medium sized swarm in a bush |
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| Our band of little helpers |
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| They were very interested |
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| Some suits fitted better than others |
We rang Ruth and fortunately she had transferred the swarm we gave her into her hive, so she said she'd return our nuc box to us. She did this on 23rd and I transferred the West Mill cast into it. Unfortunately the flowerpot fell over during the process, spilling all the bees onto the ground. We managed to scoop most of them up and I just hope we didn't lose the queen. Fred and Lesley, at Southole, are going to have this nuc.
Checked The Paddies and the queen is finally laying thank goodness.
On 31st July, my birthday, I just went for a stroll up to see the bees and noticed activity in one of the pine trees. It was a swarm! Not sure where it came from at first, but we suspect it was yet another cast from The Posties. However it was very big, so it seems very strange. These we have named The Pines and had to put them in the flowerpot!
 |
| The Pines were in the pine tree just behind the flowerpot nucleus box |
On 2nd August we were phoned by a couple in our group to say they had a swarm in their compost bin. We talked them through capturing it and hiving it. They were able to borrow suits and a nuc box from another couple in the group. Quite gratifying as several more members of the group now have bees and are also helping each other. Makes for a much more interesting group for the future.
On 3rd August we borrowed one of the hives from The Barton and after Mick waterproofed the roof with some roofing felt, we transferred The Pines into it and gave them a couple of new bars. They were already busy building comb. We gave them two jars of feed.
We finally decided that The Nectans had to go. On inspection they clearly had laying workers, so were still queenless, despite all our efforts. We took them to the bottom of the field and brushed all the bees off the combs. As expected they made their way back up the field and went into the other hives. They were particularly interested in The Meadows for some reason. There seemed to be little fighting at the entrances so we hope they mostly found new homes.
We checked The Paddies and they had 2 combs with some lovely capped worker brood on them. They are still a small colony, so we will have to keep an eye on them, but they are heading in the right direction.
So, briefly, we were up to 7 colonies, but now have 6. Only one of those has a new home to go to, so we should be going into the winter with 5 colonies of our own.
We still need to check that The Dolphins and Posties are OK, after their swarms and casts and we need to move the Meadows into the vacated hive the Nectans were in.
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