During a spell of settled fine weather, and having a hive about to swarm, I chose to remove the queen into a new empty hive, together with her nurse bees, plenty of honey stores and some brood. About 9 combs in all were transferred, and they remained remarkably calm throughout the procedure. The donor hive was alarmed, as they well might be, having lost their mother queen. I had the misfortune to break one or two combs due to sheer weight of honey and partial cross combing. This being one drawback with the top bar hive design - the bees free to build without the support of an all surrounding frame. The advantages of this hive design is however, well worth the trouble and has many advantages. After closing up both hives I realised that bees were not entering the new hive and remembered to place the queen right hive close in front of the donor hive, such that returning foraging bees have the opportunity to fly into the queen right hive.
Inner end farthest from entrance
Honey being laid down here
New Combe
End follower board prevents bars from toppling over
Plenty of brood comb to be transferred
After procedure completed the queen right hive (on the yellow stand) is placed in the flight path of the flying bees which now have the choice of entering the donor hive or the newly formed queen right hive
The third hive to the rear and right is not involved in the work today
Some broken comb - Oh Dear !
Adjacent combs are kept in sequence as near as possible
Third hive not yet strong enough to swarm. Recently turned through ninety degrees so that it catches more sun. The original end entrance to the right will soon be sealed up and the side entrance fully opened.
Time to walk away - Further inspection to be made in a few days time.
Population seems high and undiminished and sugar syrup is being fed at a rate of about 700ml per day per colony. The feed jars are being emptied in 24 hours so they could probably consume at an even higher rate. Wasps are showing up in growing numbers. I was stung on the hand while walking away, having only just removed my marigold gloves. The empty hive washed down and sterilized with hydrogen peroxide at 2%. This short video taken 18th August.
Probably too late to capture the colony no. 2 due to a natural swarming out of the barn wall.
My hopes for bees from out of the masonry diminished yesterday.
A trap hive was hauled to the top of a ladder, set against the barn and a mesh funnel deployed over the colony exit. Wasps were seen raiding the depleted nest. A colony defenceless compared to the week before.
Meanwhile the Cathedral Top Bar Hive thrives. The following video shows all the bars removed except those holding comb. The two jars of syrup have just been re-filled and the varroa tray beneath the wire mesh floor temporarily removed, to allow some bees to escape. They had somehow found a way under, despite my best efforts to make it proof against such an event.
Apologies for the noisy clicking camera focus.
The combs nearest the camera are relatively new, those farthest away and now expanded almost the full extent of the width available, contain brood and will soon be hatching the worker bees that will hopefully overwinter through to early spring of next year. Five combs just two weeks ago have expanded and seven combs are showing - probably double the overall comb area.
