Swarm in Hellsdon

The swarm was on an odd old branch of a tree laying on a bank of newly mown grass. I was seen as a mad bee man by the local lads as I sat with my cardboard box and bees flying all around me. They are little dark bees and I took them to Postwick where I was planning a visit this afternoon anyway.

The swarm from the Costessy compost bin with the flying queen had a queen there today. I didn't try to mark her this time.

The laburnum swarm queen is clearly marked and laying well now. Her bees are very laid back and hardly bother to move when I inspect them. I may take her to the allotment apiary.

The Bowthorpe compost bin (No 2) swarm are moving up into their new brood box slowly.

I checked the hive that has the last of the 2008 queens in it. There were eggs. But as usual with that colony I didn't see the queen. It is still quite weak but is hanging on in there. Maybe if they can get through another winter they will take off next year.

The bees from the 2008 swarm that I moved from the allotment are still being annoying. I checked them today and they have a new queen and are making honey and a lot of brace comb as I had left some frames out of the hive when taking out the queen cells. If I meant to replace them after then it must have slipped my mind. Leaving gaps in the hive is always asking for trouble. Out of the two colonies I moved I have four new queens. Not so good as I was looking for ten.

I'm not sure the swarm from North Walsham are nice bees as I gave them a brood box today. As the head gardener was having a greenhouse base laid in her allotment next door I was under strict instructions not to get the bees worked up and to leave them alone for the day. Giving those bees another box without smoking them as we we packing up set one bee folowing us up and down the allotment path. I'm blaming them anyway. I need to check them for a laying queen.

Lauren is laying

The Rockland swarm has a laying queen that I promised to call Lauren - so Little Lauren she is

Tina, Sticky

Tina is doing fine and is just about bursting out of her WBC brood box. I would like her to put some honey on the new frames we put in on the last inspection so will wait a few days before adding a second brood box.

I made up three nucs after Sticky's removal but unfortunately only one had a laying queen on inspection today so I put a frame of eggs in from Holly's brood box.

The allotment swarm

I checked the allotment swarm that I collected on the 17th for a laying queen this evening. There were no eggs in the hive. I moved a frame of eggs from the nuc box that had a 2009 queen in. That made the bees very excited

Then the queen flew off

It took several visits to the black plastic compost bin that the bees had swarmed into before I got them into a box to take them away. In fact I didn't get them into the box until I found the queen on the outside and picked her up and put her in the box myself. After making up a brood box for them and putting in a couple of frames of honey to entice them to stay I tipped the bees onto the top of the brood box. As I have done several times this year already. Watching the bees sort themselves out I noticed the queen again and though ah! I should mark her but she slipped down between the frames as I found my marking pen. So I thought that was the end of that good idea until up she popped again. She was nipping around pretty fast and I only got just to tip one wing with green as she left the top of the box and flew up into the air.

The one single brood box that survived last winter was getting very excited as I left that apiary. A mated queen returning or a virgin queen leaving?