Sunday task

[madasafish]

Well done.
I wish I was as brave...

 

[The Poot]

Lots of feeding required now to make them feel at home. Great stuff

 

[Heather]

I put a layer of fondant on top of OMF on tinfoil, and another load above them on cover board opening. Insulation in roof to keep warmth in. Leaving in peace to settle. They have thrown out a few dead bees, so tidying, and some wax dropping through floor, so feeding and sorting.. Fingers crossed now.

 

[Heather]

Nice job, Heather.

Best ladder for this sort of work is an aluminium tripod, which removes most of the risk and sweat. I bought two when I worked as a gardener, and won't use any other. Not cheap, but safest.

Wasn't really room, in a fairly dense wood on a steep slope. Jammed base of ladder into next tree base. was fairly sturdy!

 

[The Poot]

I put a layer of fondant on top of OMF on tinfoil, and another load above them on cover board opening. Insulation in roof to keep warmth in. Leaving in peace to settle. They have thrown out a few dead bees, so tidying, and some wax dropping through floor, so feeding and sorting.. Fingers crossed now.

 

[Widget]

I too helped rescue a feral colony on Sunday. I was alerted by a neighbour. The colony was in a small tree up a bank from the canal and close to a main road on the other side. I had a look and as the colony was not too high up from the road side thought I might be able to retrieve then myself. However, on closer inspection I could see that there were branches and twigs criss-crossing through the comb. Luckily 2 fellow members of our local BBKA branch came out to assist. In fact they did all the hard work and I just tried to keep people back as there were pedestrians along the canal path and the pavement by the road. I took them home in a box and put them into a polynuc. Getting them in was a very different experience from hiving a swarm. I shook the bulk of them in but as I did so the comb was breaking so I went through each piece of comb shaking and brushing off bees then putting the comb on the old throw I had used to wrap the box and covering the comb up as I went. There was some larvae in the top of the comb where all the separate combs joined together and also a very small amount of honey. I put 5 frames of drawn comb and one of foundation in the polynuc and i am feeding them syrup until they stop taking it then I will move on to fondant and Candipolene Gold. I didn't realise that bees will set up home in the open. Obviously when the tree and shrubs were in
leaf they probably didn't realise they were out in the open! I don't think these bees had heard of autumn.


PS. when I was carrying the box of bees back to my car a passing motorist wound down his window and asked if I had a box of wasps! Why would anyone have a box of wasps? I was tempted to tell him that I had a box of frogs!

 

[Boston Bees]

feeding them syrup until they stop taking it

Well done on the hiving!

I would just skip syrup though. It's pretty cold now (in Yorkshire anyway) and they might struggle to get it in storable form. Fondant should make their life easier?

 

[manek]

Well done Heather! Great job, and at this time of year too.

 

[Heather]

Well done on the hiving!

I would just skip syrup though. It's pretty cold now (in Yorkshire anyway) and they might struggle to get it in storable form. Fondant should make their life easier?

Yes, far too late for syrup, really. Would ferment. Just pile in fondant.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Unless you have access to invert - that won't ferment

 

[beeno]

I put a layer of fondant on top of OMF on tinfoil, and another load above them on cover board opening. Insulation in roof to keep warmth in. Leaving in peace to settle. They have thrown out a few dead bees, so tidying, and some wax dropping through floor, so feeding and sorting.. Fingers crossed now.

Housekeeping is always a good sign. Fingers crossed as you say.

 

[Widget]

Planning to change to fondant as soon as the weather is dry enough to open the nuc. Have seen some dead bees on the floor and evidence of wax underneath. Have been using thymolated syrup - does that ferment? I also bought some ambrosia - is that invert? Sorry, still a newbie and still learning!

 

[Heather]

Should be fine. and good signs if they are housekeeping and feeding (breaking down wax). Try to leave them to crack on with minimum disturbance. happy to help newbies... and we are all still learning after many years..so don't be sorry!

 

[North End Bees]

Heather, they could have done with you when this swarm settled on a commercial flight boarding to take off from Kolkata.
They used water cannon to disperse it

Then the next day the swarm settled on another plane. Again firefighters called out to deploy water cannon.

“Within minutes, lots of bees had settled on the plane as though ready to build a hive,” a Vistara spokesperson told The Times of India.

 

[The Poot]

Heather, they could have done with you when this swarm settled on a commercial flight boarding to take off from Kolkata.
They used water cannon to disperse it

Then the next day the swarm settled on another plane. Again firefighters called out to deploy water cannon.

“Within minutes, lots of bees had settled on the plane as though ready to build a hive,” a Vistara spokesperson told The Times of India.

It’s a shame they didn‘t let them build a hive - if they had we’d know whether they prefer Langstroth or poly.

 

[Heather]

Well.. the tree rescue colony... all tucked up in a Nuc.
I initially rubber banded all frames from the rescue into frames, in a National, to save as much stores as possible. They settled, but there was quite a tidying exercise for them. Weather against them foraging so they had fondant on. Too cold for me to intrude to check for a while , but this weekend I reassessed.
Now, due to the reduction of numbers, they will be warmer in the poly Nuc, . but queen seen, and bees very gentle despite their upheaval. As numbers lower and they have a hill to metaphorically climb. I popped in a pollen pattie. so they may have a decent diet.

 

[E&MBees]

Well.. the tree rescue colony... all tucked up in a Nuc.
I initially rubber banded all frames from the rescue into frames, in a National, to save as much stores as possible. They settled, but there was quite a tidying exercise for them. Weather against them foraging so they had fondant on. Too cold for me to intrude to check for a while , but this weekend I reassessed.
Now, due to the reduction of numbers, they will be warmer in the poly Nuc, . but queen seen, and bees very gentle despite their upheaval. As numbers lower and they have a hill to metaphorically climb. I popped in a pollen pattie. so they may have a decent diet.

Hope they make it through the winter.

 

[Heather]

Me too... think they have a good chance... but on the tree, with vertical comb, they were stuffed! Rain, rain rain..

 

[Amari]

Me too... think they have a good chance... but on the tree, with vertical comb, they were stuffed! Rain, rain rain..

I concede.

 

[pargyle]

Me too... think they have a good chance... but on the tree, with vertical comb, they were stuffed! Rain, rain rain..

The lengths we go to in order to try and preserve bees that quite obviously have very little in the way of self preservation genes ... I hope they survive and I would have done the same but ... Darwin would probably have left them to get on with it and either die out or get stronger !