Yesterday saw a lot of activity at the bait hive I keep on the roof of an old piggery but at 9.30 this morning there was none.
The four hives plus AS hive in the apiary showed low levels of activity at that time. By 12.00 activity had increased in the apiary, the apple trees were humming and a few bees were coming and going at the bait hive but no evidence of forage going into it.
This afternoon I attended the first association apiary session of the season. En route my daughter phoned me to say bees were swarming in my apiary and sent me photos of no2 hive covered in bees and a picture of a small cluster in the adjoining hedge. (This was the hive I had left a supercedure cell in last week).
I decided to complete my association visit with the hope the cluster would stay put, however a little later my son sent me a text to say the cluster had broken up, bees had returned to the apiary and behaviour was back to normal.
I'm a bit puzzled by the timing as the supercedure cell was unsealed five days ago so there hasn't possibly been 8days for pupation unless I missed a cell somewhere or the cluster actually came from a different colony and may have been a so called mating swarm. I will make a full inspection of all hives on Sunday or Monday
The four hives plus AS hive in the apiary showed low levels of activity at that time. By 12.00 activity had increased in the apiary, the apple trees were humming and a few bees were coming and going at the bait hive but no evidence of forage going into it.
This afternoon I attended the first association apiary session of the season. En route my daughter phoned me to say bees were swarming in my apiary and sent me photos of no2 hive covered in bees and a picture of a small cluster in the adjoining hedge. (This was the hive I had left a supercedure cell in last week).
I decided to complete my association visit with the hope the cluster would stay put, however a little later my son sent me a text to say the cluster had broken up, bees had returned to the apiary and behaviour was back to normal.
I'm a bit puzzled by the timing as the supercedure cell was unsealed five days ago so there hasn't possibly been 8days for pupation unless I missed a cell somewhere or the cluster actually came from a different colony and may have been a so called mating swarm. I will make a full inspection of all hives on Sunday or Monday
