All day today bees have been cruising around, looking into holes in brick work, moving through old hives and asking to be let into closed rooms - I knew something was up!
Friday was warm and it felt like the first day a swarm might occur and today, whilst less humid it was also warm. So, around the middle of the afternoon I took a look at the hives and from twenty yards away I could hear the sound of buzzing. On approaching the hives there were bees tumbling out of one and others investigating every hole in empty hives. Then I saw a large swarm hanging on a dead elder tree, about two yards from the hives.
This colony has been on the farm for eight years and has swarmed a few times before. A few hundred bees were already inside an empty hive and so as my Sun Hive is not coated or mounted yet, I followed this impulse. There was good comb in the hive so I added an extra empty deep box with bars under this and placed the skep with most of the swarm in and a branch with the remainder on the top and covered it with a sheet. Hopefully they will make it their home and I must now coat my Sun Hive with cow manure and make the frame in anticipation of a secondary swarm.
Friday was warm and it felt like the first day a swarm might occur and today, whilst less humid it was also warm. So, around the middle of the afternoon I took a look at the hives and from twenty yards away I could hear the sound of buzzing. On approaching the hives there were bees tumbling out of one and others investigating every hole in empty hives. Then I saw a large swarm hanging on a dead elder tree, about two yards from the hives.
This colony has been on the farm for eight years and has swarmed a few times before. A few hundred bees were already inside an empty hive and so as my Sun Hive is not coated or mounted yet, I followed this impulse. There was good comb in the hive so I added an extra empty deep box with bars under this and placed the skep with most of the swarm in and a branch with the remainder on the top and covered it with a sheet. Hopefully they will make it their home and I must now coat my Sun Hive with cow manure and make the frame in anticipation of a secondary swarm.