We've suddenly had a couple days of nice weather. For cracking open the hives you want it to at least be 14ºC, probably 15ºC (can you wear a t-shirt and feel comfortable outside). Friday was just such a day so we hopped on down and cracked open the hives. On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops
We’re currently preparing for a relatively late honey harvest here. Let’s say that you of course will buy honey from us, but want to buy even more. In London there’s a lot of choices for good quality honey, it seems that supermarkets are coming along with quite nice honey, but the best is usually from small sellers, as it’s not
We’ve tried to name our hives to introduce some sanity into our discussions: New Hive –> Cedar Heights (Queen Bella, as she must have been very attractive to a bee to get her lifetime supply of boyfriends so quick) Old Hive –> Old Hive (Queen Cinderella, for her inspiring battle against the odds, including an assassination attempt, to get where
So after our shambolic and accidental release of the proposed virgin queen, we hoped that she wouldn’t go back to the hive where she came from and kill the newly introduced queen (still in her cage until the colony gets used to her smell). Sadly, after a couple of days later, the new queen’s cage was empty but no queens
Today I got a call from Reuben after the normal inspection saying that the nucleus looked like it was swarming. Generally things looks very busy at the front of the hive, with a cluster of bees not at the entrance, but above it, near the top of the hive. When they start to swarm, they take the queen with them