sainfoin
New Bee
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2011
- Messages
- 63
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Cornwall
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 3
Saw more bees than usual by the landing board Frid 6pm+ in shade but thought too late for anything and this was new queen. 9.15am OH phones to say swarm by chicken run. To shorten saga, sheet to 'catch' dropped bees has to be over the electric fence, waist high nettles with brambles it is a STIFF sycamore tree. OH plans to bend branch - it breaks swarm lands on my head. Bees settle in 3 clumps higher up. We use gutter cleaner with springy green weeder basket hanging from it - he's holding it. I use tree pruner but at long extension guess at branch position , bees drop ok and others drop on and around us, weeder bees despising the poly nuc box offered to them fly past us to leave.
We regroup in barn, drink tea, go to inspect hives. White queen peaceably working but it is our new Qn swarming. Bees reappear - choose blackthorn, roots in edge of pond, swarm over v boggy pond edge. If we place sheet under them, it will probably sink in mud which is too dodgy to get into, no space for weeder bag. We are now hot, sweaty, still have all the stable work to do so turn away. OH goes for much needed hairdo I start mucking out 5 horse barn.
Here I cheated as I did keep checking - Oh came back when I was sitting hot and weary and I said 'Oh haven't been round for a bit' and he came back and said 'They've gone' !! but I smiled and told him they were all indoors, back home. Hope that doesn't backfire on me this am as there were more than usual....read the start.
Was this a mating flight with most of the bees, certainly not 80% remaining? Is that possible? There was v little sealed brood and again (last saga with this hive) no sealed queen cells that we could see yet the swarm contained more bees than I think there were in the hive when the virgin qn emerged.
Sky looks grey but it is supposed to be 16C, hot for here so no rain to keep them indoors. What do you think we were really seeing yesterday?
We regroup in barn, drink tea, go to inspect hives. White queen peaceably working but it is our new Qn swarming. Bees reappear - choose blackthorn, roots in edge of pond, swarm over v boggy pond edge. If we place sheet under them, it will probably sink in mud which is too dodgy to get into, no space for weeder bag. We are now hot, sweaty, still have all the stable work to do so turn away. OH goes for much needed hairdo I start mucking out 5 horse barn.
Here I cheated as I did keep checking - Oh came back when I was sitting hot and weary and I said 'Oh haven't been round for a bit' and he came back and said 'They've gone' !! but I smiled and told him they were all indoors, back home. Hope that doesn't backfire on me this am as there were more than usual....read the start.
Was this a mating flight with most of the bees, certainly not 80% remaining? Is that possible? There was v little sealed brood and again (last saga with this hive) no sealed queen cells that we could see yet the swarm contained more bees than I think there were in the hive when the virgin qn emerged.
Sky looks grey but it is supposed to be 16C, hot for here so no rain to keep them indoors. What do you think we were really seeing yesterday?
