FOR SALE
12 colonies
15 nucs
48 (empty) supers
One careful (but not very careful as my spouse and Relate counsellor rather forcefully point out) owner ...
This is a follow-up to Calluna4U's prescient post ... of course, it's an unwise beekeeper who ever publishes colony numbers where an irate/sceptical/ignored spouse might read them... and now back to the cleaning up
Been some smarmy bees in our apiary recently. Collected a small swarm into a nuc on Sunday and another one from a juniper bush Monday - I nearly walked into it. Turned out they were the same guys! Poly nuc again and reduced the entrance to the excluder this time. came back from work this evening and taking a quick look round the policies - small swarm back in the juniper bush. I'm sad they will have to stay there till my husband returns tomorrow evening as I'm not allowed to have anything to do with the bees anymore. I'm not sure they will survive as temps down to 12 tonight. Wish we could work out what is going on. Never had a swarm before in five years, and now 3 but small. Colonies volume looks pretty much the same, no Beekeepers within 2 miles and no feral bees that we know of.
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Best sort them out before they join a certain clique and start posting on another forum -they've already got the primary qualification.Originally Posted by Bridget
What ? Are they English bees ?
Get your 'assistant' to stick a bar of open brood into it. That normally pins an unsettled cast(e). It will otherwise not settle until the virgins have sorted themselves out. Castes with multiple virgins (not at all unusual) are awkward to hive at times.
Thanks will do that as soon as he gets home
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Didn't have a clue until I just re read my post!! Better not edit it now.
That's interesting. I caught a tiny swarm two days ago - really tiny - and wasn't sure whether it was a cast, or whether it was one of my virgin bees from a nucleus hive taking a rest on a mating flight. Anyway, I caught them and put them back in a nucleus hive - and they've stayed put. All my queens from established hives are home, and without any queen cells in the hives. I won't find out which virgin it was until I go through the nucs. But maybe I should follow your suggestion, then, C4U, and add a frame of open brood to the nucs before another virgin, or newly mated queen, decides to move house (and I didn't see it happen!).
Kitta
I think there's a bit of a flow on again. Wax being built, & filled with new liquid stores. But they're still quite keen on robbing, too, so I'm not sure. Wind's too loud to hear a hum from the limes, even if there is one, and the eye-level buds hadn't opened last time I checked. Anyone else got a flow on just now? Not so long ago it was all tetchiness and emptying stores combs round here.
Yes.. just started.. lime I think.
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