Well my first ever attempt at writing a blog so here goes...As posted in the forum We went recently to an old apiary, not visited or used to my knowledge for at least some 12 to 15 years ago, the bee keeper had long since gone. We visited just to see if there were any serviceable hive parts remaining...What we found was a lot of rotten wood and a few roofs and the odd brood box.
One of the hives remained at a precarious angle and on further inspection still contained bees! Were they left over from that long ago? Were they a new swarm? We couldnt leave without invetigating. We suited up and puffed some smoke in the entrance which was off to the side of the lower brood box with the floor section long since rotting through. When we eventually got in we found an enormous amount of bees and any remaining brood frames were long ago rotted through and we had no real possibility of examining either the frames or removing the very frail remains of the hive..The bees by now were getting mighty cross! We retreated to think again..This is where we posted on the forum for ideas under the heading "Help appreciated please !!". We were soo pleased to be given a little hope with some ideas we wouldnt have thought about our selves being relatively new bee keepers...It was also suggested we started a blog so with a few recent pics this is what we have done...Well with the advice given on the forum the next plan was to remove the crown board and simply put on another brood box with frames and this is what we did in early June 2011 because of the angle we supported the box with a few strategically placed pieces of wood! It worked like a dream and the hope was the queen will eventually move in....Ideas appreciated for what we do when and if she takes up residence!! We did look in a few days ago and were surprised to see that all the frames were still totally undrawn and very few if any bees on them...Looking down into the old hive beneath it was still heaving with activity! Should we feed to encourage them up? I have included some pics here and will endeavour to keep you up to date on proceedings....
One of the hives remained at a precarious angle and on further inspection still contained bees! Were they left over from that long ago? Were they a new swarm? We couldnt leave without invetigating. We suited up and puffed some smoke in the entrance which was off to the side of the lower brood box with the floor section long since rotting through. When we eventually got in we found an enormous amount of bees and any remaining brood frames were long ago rotted through and we had no real possibility of examining either the frames or removing the very frail remains of the hive..The bees by now were getting mighty cross! We retreated to think again..This is where we posted on the forum for ideas under the heading "Help appreciated please !!". We were soo pleased to be given a little hope with some ideas we wouldnt have thought about our selves being relatively new bee keepers...It was also suggested we started a blog so with a few recent pics this is what we have done...Well with the advice given on the forum the next plan was to remove the crown board and simply put on another brood box with frames and this is what we did in early June 2011 because of the angle we supported the box with a few strategically placed pieces of wood! It worked like a dream and the hope was the queen will eventually move in....Ideas appreciated for what we do when and if she takes up residence!! We did look in a few days ago and were surprised to see that all the frames were still totally undrawn and very few if any bees on them...Looking down into the old hive beneath it was still heaving with activity! Should we feed to encourage them up? I have included some pics here and will endeavour to keep you up to date on proceedings....
