aintbeezgreat
New Bee
Those of you who read my last thread will know that I have messed up badly. In short, I collected a nice swarm and hived them. I mistakenly left an empty super on top (under the lid) and realised, next day, that this ought to be removed. Didn't want to rush round and make a hash of it so left it there until had more time. Unfortunately, by time I got to do it the wild comb was really large and dropped off the glass crown board and onto the frames. It was one big gooey mess and in trying to clear it up I thought I was making the situation worse.
On Friday, the bees left and decided that the top of a larch was a better place to be than in a hive managed by Mr Fumble.
I suspect that many of you will think that you could do without idiots like me trying to be a beek. I hold my hands up and admit that I am ashamed of myself. I did seek advice but it was a case of being too keen; I should have closed the hive when I saw how big the combe was and sought even more advice.
Anyhow, I'm not giving up, I want to learn from this experience and if anyone is still willing to help, I would like to know what is going on now.
I was watching the hive on Saturday and there was still lots of activity at the entrance. I assume this is a salvage operation by the bees and robbing by wasps. I set up a second hive and placed it under the larch that the swarm settled on. It was quite wooded so I cleared an opening to the south and let some sunlight in. As I put the hive together, I was surrounded by about a dozen bees and three or four of them took no time to enter the hive. I watched for a while and noted that there were always about four to six bees circling the hive but only the occasional bee landing and entering (about 1 every 5 or 6 Minutes)
Today I looked and there are about ten or so buzzing around and one entering every 2 minutes. What do you think? Scouting party?
On Friday, the bees left and decided that the top of a larch was a better place to be than in a hive managed by Mr Fumble.
I suspect that many of you will think that you could do without idiots like me trying to be a beek. I hold my hands up and admit that I am ashamed of myself. I did seek advice but it was a case of being too keen; I should have closed the hive when I saw how big the combe was and sought even more advice.
Anyhow, I'm not giving up, I want to learn from this experience and if anyone is still willing to help, I would like to know what is going on now.
I was watching the hive on Saturday and there was still lots of activity at the entrance. I assume this is a salvage operation by the bees and robbing by wasps. I set up a second hive and placed it under the larch that the swarm settled on. It was quite wooded so I cleared an opening to the south and let some sunlight in. As I put the hive together, I was surrounded by about a dozen bees and three or four of them took no time to enter the hive. I watched for a while and noted that there were always about four to six bees circling the hive but only the occasional bee landing and entering (about 1 every 5 or 6 Minutes)
Today I looked and there are about ten or so buzzing around and one entering every 2 minutes. What do you think? Scouting party?
