Busy week

It's been a busy week in the bee swarm business. One swarm on Monday, interesting sort of swarm on Tuesday, bumble bee nest Wednesday and two swarms today one housed the other to go to a new home, Boyd collecting tomorrow.

The swarm that I placed in one of my hives today looked much smaller than the Monday swarm but when I tried to take my collection box top bars out to go back in the box got a very pleasant surprise, the girls had been busy(see below).

This is only after 4 hours

Think I'll have the weekend off swarms but if anyone else would like to collect one let me know and I'll pass on any calls

Cheers Dave

Kegworth Bumble Bee Update

The Carder bumble bees I moved on Monday are now living here:

Sorry about the rubbish photo.
If you have a magnifying glass handy you
might just be able to spot them near the top of the post.

They are flying well and little sign of any aggression even though their accommodation is still cramped! I was thinking of making them a new box but they have had enough mucking about already so I'll leave as is.

Boyd

The one that got away

Had a missed opportunity today, a swarm settle on my bait hive but decided to leave before I had chance to get home.

Lovely primary swarm

And then they where gone

Having spoken to a few experienced bee keeps, it may have not taken to the hive because it was in full midday sun. So think I will re-site it into a tree.

Good news is the swarm from yesterday seem very busy(lots of chewing sounds which I believe is wax creation) and it looks like they have already built some new comb.

Here's to the next swarm.

Ninja Beekeeping

Oh My God! I'm getting too old for this! Not really, hopefully all the excited running about and the occasional bit of bee string therapy will keep me young(ish)......... 

At 19:15 I had just got off the phone to Shane regarding the bees he was off to rescue detailed below when I noticed an e-mail from Dave (Lord Tedric) regarding a number of possible swarms.  Frantic phone calls to Dave revealed that he had already caught one of them near the McDonald's on the Derby ring road and was about to put it into one of his new top bar hives, so could I contact the other two to try and retrieve some bees. My first contact, in Kings Newton nr. Melbourne, told me they had already taken off, but he would keep an eye out for them and get back in touch. The second call was to a lovely couple, Martin & Penny, in Kegworth for what turned out to be another colony of Common Carder Bumble Bees ("I seem to be slowly acquiring the National Collection!"). I told them I was more than happy to move them and twenty minutes later I was at their house. In the gathering gloom I was presented with a lovely little bird box, in amongst some overgrown ivy, absolutely bursting with the unmistakably fawn and white Common Carders. Apparently they had been rather aggressive over the last few days; with the glowing Penny not only having giving birth four days earlier but also getting stung on the cheek as well - it's not easy being a Mum! I suspect that the close proximity to the back door, their cramped accommodation and the dire weather we've had for the last few weeks were all factors that caused this unusual  bumble bee behaviour.

Might once have been for birds, has definitely
seen mice (phew!) and is now home to bumble bees.

As there seemed to be quite a lot of bees in this nest I decided that full suit and gloves would be the order of the day and after waiting for as many bees to return I plugged the hole with a small piece of sponge. I then cut away some of the ivy to access the condition and fixings of the box, which was well entwined within the undergrowth; so-much-so that I needed the help of a claw hammer to begin prising it away from its post. Just as I was seconds away from lifting the whole box into my waiting pillowcase the thin plywood roof came away. Merde! Twenty or so bees made a bolt for it but I managed, using my knees, elbows and teeth, to hold the lid on and finally get the box off and into the bag. I'm not sure what fate will befall the escapees but I think I salvaged the majority of the colony.

Twenty minutes later, back at home and in near darkness, I'm ready to undertake a Ninja relocation. I decided to attach the bird box to a new fence post my neighbour had recently erected adjoining the bottom of our gardens. With all my kit ready - battery drill, screws, secateurs, string, hammer etc., I gingerly opened the string tied pillow case expecting lots of agitated bees to come flying out. But I was surprised that there were none; more by luck that judgement they seem to have all managed to get back inside the box. I took the opportunity to put a few stabilising screws into the weather beaten lid, added some string for good measure and attached it to the chosen post. Then 1-2-3 quickly pulled the sponge out of the hole and moved smartly back to the house; praying they wouldn't all chase me - which they didn't! Hopefully they haven't suffer too much from the ordeal and will settle into their new location during the next few days.

Now that they are all tucked-up in bed it's time for me to do the same.........

Toddle-pip!

       

Bumble Rescue II

I was working with someone today who's friend needed a bees nest removing from his store. I went along after 1900ish armed with my bee suit, a box and the camera. It was all very undramatic. As I cleared the bits and pieces from around the nest about 20 bees emerged. They were very loud, but none tried to sting me. I gave them a misting with the water spray and they went straight into the box. A quick scoop with a spade had the nest in the box and the lid was taped in place. There were about five bees flying about afterward but all in all it seemed to go ok.

They are now re-housed in a quiet corner of my garden :-)

First swarm

First swarm collected today and it had to be the easiest one ever. 

Bee's on a pallet at chest height quick knock into a box, 30 mins later sealed and in car. 

Now sat on top of hive waiting for my little lad as he wants to help put them in. 

Will post pictures later. 

We need some phone contacts as I had 3 other calls while collecting.

Dave



Update  on girls. Now nicely in bed, hopefully that's where they will stay, always the risk they will abscond with it being a new hive.

A few photo's

Still in the travel box, on top of the hive, just separated the bars so they could get use to the area

Out they come, all bars lifted together

In they go

Last few stragglers persuaded to get in

 

All top bars back on

 Just need to put the lid on.


All photo's courtesy of Jo my wife(from a distance in the field)


I'll give them till the weekend an see how they are doing.


Dave

Relocation

As the weather looked fairly decent this morning I made the decision to move the nuc hive out of my garden and transfer the bees into the 3' tbh. At 0745 the sock was stuffed into the entrance, the hive wrapped up in a dust sheet and placed in the van ready for their fifteen mile ride.

 Due to the heavy rain lately the track is too muddy to drive down which meant a 300m walk with the hive and gear down to the boat. I'm not sure if the cows were interested in me or the bees, but I hoped there were no bulls eyeing up my red cylinder tank jacked!

The recent flood had receded but the flotsam had been dumped directly on top of my jetty. I decided to clamber over the top of it all with the hive rather than try to move it and become lathered in mud before I started with the bees.

As I unwrapped the nuc hive and the unhappy bees made their escape I came across my first problem. Boyd's 17" top bars are about 20mm longer than my 17" top bars! I should have remembered this from when we did the split five weeks ago. Luckily I swapped onto the mark two tbh on which the lid fits a little more loosely :-) The process went quite well and the bees were in their new home within twenty minutes.

Here are some pictures of the comb. Any observations welcome!

I left them for about three hours while I did some other jobs. Afterwards they seemed quite calm and a handfull were buzzing around. I don't think they had worked out where the entrance was yet. My only concern was that the actual number of bees in the colony didn't seem that big, probably only high hundreds. I'm not sure if there is a critical mass that's needed for the colony to survive?