March 2012
The bees have been out and seen nearby making the best of the sun to gather Gorse pollen.
Towards the end of the month the bees went on a trip to "The Ancestral Pile" as the new apiary site arranged after last years vandalism is under three miles from "The Lost Plot".
Febuary 2012
Mouseguard removed to allow house bees to bring out their dead without causing traffic chaos.
September 2011
The two vandalised colonies where successfully united and eventually went in to winter with plenty of stores.
August 2011
The hives have done really well over the last six weeks
Both colonies where in to the last few frames of their first brood boxes and using about half the height of the upper brood boxes for brood with the rest now being full of store.
The bees were well tempered, clean and had found balsam, the queens were laying well.
About three days after the supers went on i got a call from a friend a few plots down who had heard a lot of noise from my plot that morning. When i got there i found exactly how much needless destruction six bored, sub- teenage youths could inflict on an apiary.
I could have wept. But I called the police and my son helped me start to piece the hives back together. Unbelievably, the community support officer didn't think it was serious enough to warrant "criminalising some bored kids". Within three days the grapevine had spat out the names of the three main culprits, all under 12, and they where duly very sternly spoken to. And then laughed at due to the large amount of red lumps they where sporting. As I had reassembled the hives I talked to my girls, I only got stung once. In the following grew weeks I found that one queen had either swarmed or not survived and the remnants of her colony where being robbed out. I felt it late in the season for even an emergency new queen and so the hives where united.
They eventually went in to winter with three brood boxes full of stores.
July 2011
Here is a snippet of video of new workers orientating
June 2011
....so. As I was saying, excitement in the camp. At pretty much the last possible time I got word of some nuc's becoming available from a reputable though not very local source. With awareness of the poor availability of good local bees and having heard that a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon i decided to take the plunge.
Before i picked them up there was a frantic week of flat-pack building and strumming over at the "lost Plot". With the prep done the bees arrived.
Within five minutes of being located and opened the bees where out and starting to explore. Within twenty they where bringing back pollen.
That evening the nuc frames where transferred to the brood boxes. By the next after noon they where out and orienting in force.
If you're likely to get this sort of problem, get a hive strap (you can sometimes get one from Poundland, for strapping luggage on roofracks), and keep it round the hive permanently. It's a minimal nuisance, and not many vandals will stop to undo it.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Once united the hive was strapped. Twice! This time i got the straps from National Bee Supplies as i was ordering other stuff. They were about the same price but a bit less robust than the ones i got from B&Q for the roof rack. Will keep an eye on Pound land. I am hoping this was a one off event but am still looking to recite for this year, either closer to me for supervision or further from anyone.
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