PaleoPerson
Field Bee
Ok, probably not what you are thinking and a bit of a shaggy dog story, but here goes.
Last Sunday, a non bee day (so I thought) and one of the wife's hives threw out a small cast. Drat, do not need this.
It landed 12 feet away from the hive on our fence and clustered, so (annoyed) I decided it would be good fun to show the kids how bees walk into a new home.
Set up a nuke on a brick, laid out the cloth, brushed bees into my favourite square bucket end emptied in front of hive. All went as normal. Saw the queen go in and one minute later come out and fly away. Double Drat.
Left them alone for a few minutes and she came back and settled amongst them and then they all started to go into the hive. A minute later, they all came out and clustered in front of the hive. Triple Drat!
They obviously did not like the hive, so swapped it for another (that I thought was less suitable) and in they poured and have so far stayed and have started to draw out.
So apart from them being very good at hiding queen cells/me crap at spotting them in the first place, they must have thought that there was something nasty about the first hive and was just not having any of it.
Curiouser and Curiouser
Last Sunday, a non bee day (so I thought) and one of the wife's hives threw out a small cast. Drat, do not need this.
It landed 12 feet away from the hive on our fence and clustered, so (annoyed) I decided it would be good fun to show the kids how bees walk into a new home.
Set up a nuke on a brick, laid out the cloth, brushed bees into my favourite square bucket end emptied in front of hive. All went as normal. Saw the queen go in and one minute later come out and fly away. Double Drat.
Left them alone for a few minutes and she came back and settled amongst them and then they all started to go into the hive. A minute later, they all came out and clustered in front of the hive. Triple Drat!
They obviously did not like the hive, so swapped it for another (that I thought was less suitable) and in they poured and have so far stayed and have started to draw out.
So apart from them being very good at hiding queen cells/me crap at spotting them in the first place, they must have thought that there was something nasty about the first hive and was just not having any of it.
Curiouser and Curiouser
come on Rick they are female lol..
