Colony Bar Wars!

Bees entered two of our trap boxes a couple of weeks ago, just a few days apart.  So it was very exciting to move them to the hives at the weekend.  One colony was fairly strong with combs already being built in the trap box.  The bars and bees were simply lifted from the trap box and put into the hive.  The other colony was weaker and the thought was to combine it with the other one.  Despite looking, the queen could not be identified so this plan was abandoned and the colony was added to another hive.  Some combs with pollen and honey were added from our original hive to encourage them to stay and build.  We wait to see if this was successful.  The trap boxes were re-baited and put back up in shady areas around the site.

Our first hive was also checked and some old dark comb taken away so as not to encourage hive beetles.  Also some of the other combs that had been built across the bars were corrected.  This was done by removing the comb from the bar,  holes put through the comb about 1 1/2″ down and tied with string to the bar.  This colony is fairly strong but is struggling to find enough to forage on to build quickly .

We continue to work on the floral calendar by sowing more flowers and planting more flowering trees.  Hopefully also this year our fruit trees will begin flowering and producing.