More moving of bees.

OK - So we didn't really get too far in moving the bees. - They'd gone about 10 feet from their original home, but were now in the way, and we still had about 40 feet to go.  I looked around the internet for other options for short distance moves, and anyway, this is what we did...  The basic thing seems to be to try to force the bees to reorient themselves.  There seem to be two ways of doing this, either confine them for some time, or change the environment immediately outside the hive radically. - We tried a combination approach.

1. - Day one.  Block the hive in the evening.  Move the hive to it's new location at the same time and leave it blocked.

2. - After 72 hours, open the entrance and we left a leafy plant in front of the entrance so that emerging bees might be forced further to reorient.

After a couple of hours, there were bees bringing pollen back to the hive in it's new location.  True, there are a number of bees around the old location of the hive, and some of them are clearly confused foragers, but I guess we expected we might lose a few.  By the evening, there were no bees in the old location so they'd either clustered somewhere, or found the new location.  Either way, I think we tentatively judge this a success for now - watch this space.

Bees On the move.

A glorious day here today, though still only about 11 degrees, it's very calm with no wind, and the garden in full sun.  The bees are flying by their thousand.  Not sure they are going very far, but they are all coming out for some fresh air and it's great to see.

The recent storms have brought down the fence between our house and next door.  This means there is very little to force the bees to overfly their garden.  Also, I felt the bees were a little close to their house, especially if they were on their patio.  So, in order to keep relations sweet, we are moving them - gradually, each couple of days we move the hive a couple of feet.  They are going up the garden where an area has been cleared and paving slabs put down.  This won't get quite as much sun, but will mean that they are forced to fly over our shed, and the neighbours before overflying the neighbour's garden which I will feel happier about.  It should also mean there is more room for a second hive which will likely be necessary when the season kicks off.

So far, we've moved the hive about 10 feet.  Some of the bees can be seen clustering around the old location, but I'm hoping they will get the message and find the new location as it creeps up the garden.  In a couple of weeks or so, the hive should be in it's new home and everyone happy.

New Year 2014

It's 2nd Januaray 2014.  It seems to have been raining for days, but today is bright and sunny.  Only about 7 degrees, but there are a suprising number of bees out and about.  I gave them a small lump of christmas cake which they seem to love.



I would have done a varroa count, but the board has blown out of the back of the hive, so I cleaned it and replaced it and will count later.