Tuesday 9 June 2009

Into the hive

The start of a new colony. Or at least I hope so if the queen made it. It was a cold and occasionally drizzly morning. I opened the hive up and removed the old bottle, which by now was empty of bees, from the brood body. I’m not sure all the bees from the bottle had stayed in the hive, but there were still quite a few there. Next it was time to open up the sheet and the cardboard box. Despite what Ann had predicted, there was quite a loud buzz coming from inside the box, and in fact some bees had found a route out of box and sheet and were starting to emerge already. The flaps on the box were heavy with bees and I had to bang hard on each to knock them down. When I opened the box I was again surprised by just how many bees there were: coating every surface, with the bottom the box being many bees deep. I juggled the box into an inverted position and jolted and brushed as I could to get them into hive in the space vacated by the bottle. It seemed difficult to manage the tight folds of the box’s flaps, the brush and the inverted orientation all at the same time. With still a fair number of bees on the inside surfaces of the box, I decided to get the remaining brood frames into the hive. I dropped each in and they sake slowly down as the bees vacated the space. Next there followed more juggling and jolting of the box and some brushing of the outside of the hive to get as many bees as possible to the entrance and out of the cold. I left the box near the front of the hive to let the rest climb in, and took a seat to survey my work. I’d only been stung once, though how the blighter got inside my lower sleeve when I wore both smock and gloves I do not know. I’d left an inverted contact feeder full of sugar syrup on top of the crown board, though I now hope for some decent weather to get them foraging out properly. I intend to look in on the hive again in the next few days, but wait a full seven days before opening it up.

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