Charity case!

[Rosti]

I'm going soft! Had a call to remove some bees from a compost bin in a small garden within the village, young children, site very close to house and so had to go. When I got there I found the smallest of colonies hanging on for dear life, open to the elements, been there about a week and had built a respectable amount of comb (for the miniscule numbers). The comb and bees filled about 1/3 of a std national brood frame, got to be sub 750 bees. Had to go back a get a nuc box, the 14x12 was definately over-kill. They were wet, well established, it started raining and they were still as good as gold. As such they have been awarded the 2011 basket case award and I'm going to see if I can get them to a decent colony by autumn! You can take the award of them if you rescue a smaller, pluckier colony

 

[freethorpe bees]

Aah bless them, they look so cute marching into the nuc! Did you see HM?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Oh fingers crossed.
Let us know how they get on

 

[Rosti]

Did you see HM?

No, didn't even look for her, assume she is in there because the rest started trooping in - it started raining so I got them in undercover asap, certainly no signs of laying, but some stored nectar and some stored pollen as well. I'll leave them be 3 weeks and see what develops. Never had a colony so small that I was able to name and recognise all individuals!

 

[Queens59]

Betty, Daisy, Ermintrude...Good Luck Rosti!

 

[chycarne]

I sit impressed well done, proud of you and good to know someone like you out there. I hope the bees say thank you later on!! Our wee colony is struggling on gamely still cleaning each other, looking after their bit of hive and collecting and storing and laying and trying. we are hoping they will superseed and so fingers crossed- while they still try we arent giving up on them either. Well done you!

 

[MuswellMetro]

i have got a similar size caste i found in an empty super stack in which i had left a damaged 14x12 foudation frame from last year, it covered about 20% of one side of the 14x12

i though at first they were robbing out honey but notice a 50p size brood so placed it in two supers as a hive and some drawn comb and bulked out the hive to a nuc

so we are all soft, just could not cull them after all their hard work