Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Today when the sun finally shon again we took advantage of the warmth and removed 5 capped frames of beautiful golden fresh honey. We spun out indoors and it flowed really smooth. Now we are waiting for the final drips to drop and then 24 hours settle before the jars come out again… cant wait for my toast in the morning…
Ok missed a few weeks due to top heavy time at work…something called OfstEd came along and got us….anyway….the bees swarmed again 3 weeks ago, came home one night to a huge swarm hanging on the arch…collected them and sent them off to another keen novice and his allotment.
Then went through all frames and cleared about 5 queen cells so they were defo keen to swarm…kept one that looked proper healthy….
week 2 … queen cell empty and loads of stores but no brood
week 4… fresh brood, busy bees, loads of pollen and the super has 4 capped frames of competition standard honey in it….amazing…beautiful stuff…am excited about spinning it out already.
keep it up queenie…
Got home last night to my neighbour telling me a huge swarm of bees flew over her house at lunchtime…but she checked and our bees were still coming and going…I then checked and the hive is busy but with 5 queen cells, 3 capped…i removed all but the most healthy looking one…so come on queenie…grow strong..!
Check out the range of pollen coming into the honey centre…and the face at take off is amazing
Last Saturday we had a look inside to discover lots of stores and hard working colony and even more exciting lots of fresh brood.
The colony seems very happy with its new residence and has made friends with Jean next door as they pop over the fence to drink at her pond.
Have added a super as there is a large colony working hard and the queen is laying well.
Next stage is to re-queen in about a months time to avoid a repeat swarming episode which wasnt very popular at the allotments opposite school but would be even less popular in suburbia!!!
Lots of foraging going on as the sun shone briefly…added another 1lb jar of syrup late last night to keep them going.
Forecast for this week is broken sun and cloud so will reduce the feed a little and see if they can start bringing in the pollen
Having been all settled in for a week we had a peek today at the new colony.
They have fed on 2L of sugar syrup in a week and upon inspection have put it to good use creating lots of cells and filling many of them with stores ready for when the queen starts laying.
No brood as yet…and being a slightly warmer day we have left them to forage…will feed again this evening…otherwise they might become too lazy
Will check again towards the end of this week and if still no brood then will have to get on the website and order us a queen…wicked fun for the postie!!
On 30th April I got a call to say the bees had swarmed…headed to the allotments to find them on a tree looking for somewhere warm and dark to set up home.
So with a box and a brush we caught the swarm and then brought them home to start the Welling annex of streetbees.
Here is where you will find the hive inspections and updates…
