This weekend I have witnessed two mini-nucs absconding - well they tried! Both were VERY full of bees so beware if you are in the same situation!

One Apidea had lost its queen a couple of weeks ago (I sold her) and had a laying scrub queen dumped in there a week ago - just because I didn't have the heart to squash her just yet! The swarm occured yesterday; As she was clipped she made about 3 feet and was seen on the grass with a few bees around her. I put her in a cage in a Swi-bine mini-nuc and ALL the bees followed. They left the brood in the Apidea - both old sealed brood from the previous queen and eggs fro mthe scrub queen and the new home is as full as their old one. (Still there today).


The other swarm was today. A plywood mini-nuc of mine had no brood but was very full. A virgin emerged about 10th - 12th August and finished on a high conifer hedge with all the bees. She has now been housed in a 5 frame nuc on the same site - I guess there must be enough bees to cover nearly 2 frames so they were definitely squashed in the previous home. I had assumed that I had longer as she hasn't started to lay yet and I had banked on bee numbers reducing until the first new bees emerge.

I'm not sure if the queen left on a mating flight (as Jon has witnessed) and the bees got confused. If I was a betting man I would say that she will be laying within the next few days.

The last couple of days have been good mating weather here. 21 - 22 degrees and little wind.