Drove over to York yesterday evening to view bees. Slight satnav malfunction saw me phoning my destination from a junction and found I was actually pretty close to where the hives were kept so I was collected and followed the owner to the spot where the bees were.
There were three possibles, a full size brood and two nucs, with all 3 being on 14 x 12 frames. All were healthy Buckfasts and queens marked. Eggs, larvae etc in good supply and stores building up.
After deliberation I decided to take the smaller of the nucs. I had some insect screen gauze so we stuffed the entrance with foam sponge and wrapped the opened top of the nuc with the gauze for ventilation in transit, put it in back of the discovery, secured it upright, paid for the bees and drove home in the dusk, wearing my bee suit in case of mishaps.
Once home I put the nuc in position, did a rapid swap over of foam sponge plug to a flap of mesh to allow ventilation, put the crown board on and slid the insect mesh out from under it. Put the roof on and left the bees to settle down for the night.
Got up this morning and removed the entrance mesh flap then left the bees to their own devices to settle in to their new surroundings.
There were three possibles, a full size brood and two nucs, with all 3 being on 14 x 12 frames. All were healthy Buckfasts and queens marked. Eggs, larvae etc in good supply and stores building up.
After deliberation I decided to take the smaller of the nucs. I had some insect screen gauze so we stuffed the entrance with foam sponge and wrapped the opened top of the nuc with the gauze for ventilation in transit, put it in back of the discovery, secured it upright, paid for the bees and drove home in the dusk, wearing my bee suit in case of mishaps.
Once home I put the nuc in position, did a rapid swap over of foam sponge plug to a flap of mesh to allow ventilation, put the crown board on and slid the insect mesh out from under it. Put the roof on and left the bees to settle down for the night.
Got up this morning and removed the entrance mesh flap then left the bees to their own devices to settle in to their new surroundings.
