Category: apiculture

So last week, the evening before we were due to leave for a week the bees swarmed. Only three days after they arrived. I was happily sitting in the garden when I heard a lot of bee noise and then realised that there were thousands of them close by.

Why they swarmed is not clear. Stress from the travel? Too long in nuc and overcrowding? Did not like the new hive? There were no clear queen cells that I saw before the swarm, but that does not mean that they were not there!

Fortunately they went to a low branch in a tree in the garden.

I quickly read my bee manual to find out what to do and they behaved well and were a textbook case.

I shook the swarm into the box, turned it upside down and the rest of he bees walked in so that they could find the queen.

The process was completed when I then transferred them back to the nuc.

It was certainly a steep learning curve.

A week on and the swarm in the nuc are active and I think that I have seen the queen. In the original hive the remainers are there and active. Too early to see a new queen? Next week will be instructive.

The arrival of bees at long last. It has only been in gestation for about three years. I did my learners course at Ealing Beekeepers about 4 years ago and I had the input from Johann at the allotment.

I ordered the bees in January and they arrived 2 days ago. They are Buckfast which are meant to be a more mild mannered breed. The queen is 2025 so the colony is small and relatively immature.

The colony arrived in the polystyrene ‘nuc’ after another hour in the car. I think the bees were somewhat stressed.

I followed the advice of the man in shop and bought and used an insulated frame to help conserve heat as the colony only takes up half of the ruche. I also have used feed – glucose sirop – to give them a boost and because it is a low time currently for availability of pollen and nectar.

They do seem to have come to life a bit today. The weather has been warmer and maybe the bees are more settled.

I have been concerned as some bees have congregated under la ruche today. Are they stressed? Are they disoriented because they left the nuc first and then cannot find the opening? I did lift some up to the landing strip and they did wobble slowly inside.

I rechecked la ruche today. The bees are feeding from the nourisseur and I think I saw the queen. There seemed to be a lot of activity. Some maybe all ok really. On verra.