- Joined
- Mar 30, 2011
- Messages
- 37,277
- Reaction score
- 17,615
- Location
- Glanaman,Carmarthenshire,Wales
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- Too many - but not nearly enough
I guess 4 years is possible though. There is another beekeeper nearby so quite likely reoccupied by his swarms.
I've had the opportunity to observe several colonies of these mythical 'free living' bees equally in hollow trees or old stone walls/rock crevices (people conveniently forget that for a large part of Europe's 'pre-history' it was virtually treeless plains and tundra) they have seldom lasted more than three seasons, a few four and one that died in its fifth spring (that long hard cold spring of 2012 IIRC)