I will get to the post heading in due time... maybe...
Pre-amble part one: First an update from last week.
Because I knew how much work I would have on this week (starting with a 13hr day on Sunday) I managed to wangle last Thursday off. As it happened summer decided to put in a showing and the weather was stunning. The children were at school my wife was busy and I had time to just sit next to the entrances of the hives without having to rush my beekeeping because we were going somewhere/doing something/seeing someone etc etc etc. I gave a brief summary here:
My Accidental Warre
Because I knew how much work I would have on this week (starting with a 13hr day on Sunday) I managed to wangle last Thursday off. As it happened summer decided to put in a showing and the weather was stunning. The children were at school my wife was busy and I had time to just sit next to the entrances of the hives without having to rush my beekeeping because we were going somewhere/doing something/seeing someone etc etc etc. I gave a brief summary here:
My Accidental Warre
[embed]https://youtu.be/BfjeGgIAqc4[/embed]
The Poppy Hive
[embed]https://youtu.be/ESxO2opNToQ[/embed]
As I say in the video I put some comb underneath attached by cable ties. This works extremely well when the bees do what they are supposed to. ie move down, clean the comb, connect it to the bar, queen lays in it... job done! However, on this occasion the bees filled that comb to brimming with nectar. The combination of all that weight and warmth of the bees caused the cable ties to tear through the comb and the comb to drop off of the bar. Bees are supposed to store above their brood, in fact the only time they don't is when they are backfilling their brood nest before ****SPOILER ALERT**** swarming. How strange that they did this... I wonder why. So I propped the comb up against the side of the box and left them to get on with reattaching.
Pre-amble part two: Some of you may remember me housing a hive for a friend Steve. Some of you may even remember these bees appeared to come out of winter strong. What you probably don't know is that the colony ultimately failed in March. On a hive post-mortem this appeared to be an issue with damp.
Wed 10/06/15:
ring ring....ring ring....ring ring( I am afraid this is shoddy attempt to convey my phone ringing even though phones rarely actually "ring" any more).
ring ring....ring ring....ring ring( I am afraid this is shoddy attempt to convey my phone ringing even though phones rarely actually "ring" any more).
my wife: ummmm .. honey there are a lot of bees on the roof of the shed and flying round the garden.
me: how many bees, it is a swarm or just scouts around the bait hive.
my wife: how should I know how many bees they won't stay still for me to count them. There's just a lot of bees and they're acting weird. I have of a friends of the school meeting in the back garden in an hour and people are bringing their children, is it safe.
me: Is what safe?
my wife: The Bees! They're acting weird, is it safe?
Finally getting to the point:
When I returned home there was indeed a meeting in my back garden and as it turns out "a lot of bees" means around 50, and "acting weird" means scouting behaviour. I checked all of my bait hives and every one had strong scouting activity. I therefore checked my warre hive. The hive definitely had less bees and on checking under the top box there were several capped queen cells. The swarm had obviously already left. By the time I got home the scouting had stopped and none of my bait hives had the swarm in them..... may be I had lost them :(
When I returned home there was indeed a meeting in my back garden and as it turns out "a lot of bees" means around 50, and "acting weird" means scouting behaviour. I checked all of my bait hives and every one had strong scouting activity. I therefore checked my warre hive. The hive definitely had less bees and on checking under the top box there were several capped queen cells. The swarm had obviously already left. By the time I got home the scouting had stopped and none of my bait hives had the swarm in them..... may be I had lost them :(
When I returned home this evening there was still no scouting on my shed bait hives but when I checked in my apiary....
[embed]https://youtu.be/T39d86ixkCs[/embed]
They had clearly decided that since the weather was so nice they would camp out under the stars for their first night out and move into their new house the nest day.
They had clearly decided that since the weather was so nice they would camp out under the stars for their first night out and move into their new house the nest day.
Usually warre bait hives are two boxes. I added the top box back to this hive because the old comb in it was getting far too much interest in my shed. The swarm must have been quite large to choose this as a home. Clearly they are bees of fine taste choosing Steve's warre as they did. Well done sneaky bees and may Mata Hari continue to rule you well.
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