So, what are our bees doing now?

We had hoped that after catching and re-housing a swarm from one of our hives that things in the apiary would settle down. The colony in the strongest hive had now been split into three:

  • A colony in the original hive with a queen cell
  • An ‘artificially swarmed’ colony with queen cells in a nuc box
  • A caught swarm complete with the queen in the middle partition of  a triple nuc box

The other hive had swarmed and we lost the swarm so only had a small colony in it. With such small colonies in each box we though that all swarming activity would cease and the bees would settle down and get to work building up the colonies. However, as you may have realised by now, the bees don’t read the same books as us and have their own agenda to which they adhere.

Early Morning Bees

Early Morning Bees

I now have no idea what they are up to, but since catching and re-housing the swarm, the swarmed colony and the colony from whence it came have been exceptionally active. I go out to check them first thing in the morning (6am) and already there are bees at the entrances to both hives and the air around them is full of bees. This continues all day long, despite the poor weather, and last night I checked them at around 9.30pm and they were still at it.

I’d like to think that they were just being particularly industrious as they try to rebuild their colonies but somehow I don’t think this is the case. It seems much more likely to me that they are up to no good. But what sort of ‘no good’ and why? What are they up to and how do I get them to settle down?

Crazy bees!

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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