Mike a,
Just off to the bees, today, to unite a couple of good colonies (soon get a crowded hive with a second year queen), feed pollen patties (although they don't need it right now), give them plenty of 1:1 syrup (for the water needed) and fix in some form of extra central heating to encourage brooding, That should get them off to a stomping start.
I will encourage my other hives to start brooding if they haven't, so there will be plenty of capped brood and/or nurse-bees to transfer to this colony over the next few weeks. I must be able to get them to the point of swarming by early March......
Oh, just a couple of further things to think about: Location - I'm in Lincolnshire and not the south-west, so not quite so easy for me - and they will quite likely need an inside loo to process all the waste, if the weather turns decidedly nasty outside their cosy little nursery hive.
Apart from that, all should be well - Mike, your tenner might be safe, yet!
Maybe on second thoughts, I won't do all the above - but a word with Hivemaker could easily make it happen down in the Bahamian regions of the UK (although he would never normally have swarms that early!!). I wonder if just uniting half a dozen colonies, at the right time, might do the trick....
Regards, RAB
Just off to the bees, today, to unite a couple of good colonies (soon get a crowded hive with a second year queen), feed pollen patties (although they don't need it right now), give them plenty of 1:1 syrup (for the water needed) and fix in some form of extra central heating to encourage brooding, That should get them off to a stomping start.
I will encourage my other hives to start brooding if they haven't, so there will be plenty of capped brood and/or nurse-bees to transfer to this colony over the next few weeks. I must be able to get them to the point of swarming by early March......
Oh, just a couple of further things to think about: Location - I'm in Lincolnshire and not the south-west, so not quite so easy for me - and they will quite likely need an inside loo to process all the waste, if the weather turns decidedly nasty outside their cosy little nursery hive.
Apart from that, all should be well - Mike, your tenner might be safe, yet!
Maybe on second thoughts, I won't do all the above - but a word with Hivemaker could easily make it happen down in the Bahamian regions of the UK (although he would never normally have swarms that early!!). I wonder if just uniting half a dozen colonies, at the right time, might do the trick....
Regards, RAB
