rockdoc
Field Bee
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2011
- Messages
- 594
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- East Devon a bit of a green desert!
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 10
A while ago I posted about why you would bother to keep expired queens in the freezer. Well today I had a sort of answer. A few days ago I was called to a swarm that had settled in a compost bin. There was a fair bit of comb, but I managed to get most of the bees out and re-homed. Two days ago I saw the queen in her new home and all was well. I had told the owner of the bin that any residual bees would soon disappear. She called today saying there were still 'hundreds' in the bin, so I returned and hatched a little plan. I smeared a queen from the freezer inside the top of my skep and placed it on the compost bin. Two hours later all the bees were clustered in the skep and have just been re-united with their friends. So it seems there may well be at least one good reason to hang on to old queens after all!