Headnavigator
Drone Bee
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2011
- Messages
- 1,049
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- Isle of Wight
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 4
Casually put up a spare National and a poly Nuc as bait hives last week. They each had some drawn frames from a colony I combined last Autumn and a bit of the old lemon-grass oil. There are no other bee-keepers within a mile or so of me, so I did it to tempt fate and as a long back-stop just in case mine should throw a swarm and confound me.
Well confounded I am. There have been a lot of bees coming and going around both since I put them up, and today the poly Nuc has bees - it's chock full of bees, a dozen or so dead ones underneath it, and lots of action.
Big sigh, imagining my nice queen in there, but going straight into my resident colony there are still eggs, crammed with brood and bees, the odd play cup but no sign of QCs of any sort, and a new super all neatly drawn in the last few days.
Can only think I have picked up a genuine errant swarm, a gift, a bonus! anyone else had one yet?
Well confounded I am. There have been a lot of bees coming and going around both since I put them up, and today the poly Nuc has bees - it's chock full of bees, a dozen or so dead ones underneath it, and lots of action.
Big sigh, imagining my nice queen in there, but going straight into my resident colony there are still eggs, crammed with brood and bees, the odd play cup but no sign of QCs of any sort, and a new super all neatly drawn in the last few days.
Can only think I have picked up a genuine errant swarm, a gift, a bonus! anyone else had one yet?