Swarm Archives - A Simple Life of Luxury

Making Increase

Alan Cole — Fri, 31 May 2024 13:58:10 +0000

I thought I was doing quite well with the bees this year. There was an early swarm or possibly a supersedure in the hive by the bedroom at the beginning of April. This was actually a fairly good thing as the hive re-queened and the queen was laying last time I looked. All good there...

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Apiary Manipulations

Alan Cole — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 09:40:39 +0000

After a nice night away with Anna I decided to take a quick look at the bees. It had only been 5 days since I’d last inspected them but it’s prime swarm season so it’s good to keep an eye on them. Leri Hive The first hive, Leri, was all looking good. They have a...

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Beekeeping – A Relaxing Swarm

Alan Cole — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 06:09:32 +0000

Whilst Morgan and I were out on our geocaching walk on Tuesday I received a phonecall from someone at a nearby up-market hotel. They had a swarm of bees and wanted to know what they could do about it. I obviously offered to go around and collect them later that evening. It was all a bit...

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A Holiday Swarm

Alan Cole — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 06:09:27 +0000

After a couple of weeks away and therefore no beekeeping we were wondering how our bees had been faring as we drove home after our holiday. We didn’t quite get home though before the beekeeping began! As we drove out of Builth Wells about an hour from home, I had a phonecall from someone down the road...

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Housing Swarms

Alan Cole — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 04:42:40 +0000

It’s been a busy Spring of beekeeping for us. Not only have we been busy making increase and setting up new out apiaries but we’ve been getting lots of call outs to swarms as well. The Perfect Swarm The first was a lovely swarm in Penparcau. We packed the car with the tools we thought...

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A New Queen has Risen – What shall we call her?

Alan Cole — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:09:01 +0000

Things have been a little fraught on the bee-keeping front. The weather has been terrible for the bees. We seem to get one or two days where they can get out and fly, followed by 5-6 days of winds and rain that keeps them shut up in their hives. There just hasn’t been enough time...

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Swarm Housed in a Triple Nuc Box

Alan Cole — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:08:47 +0000

Another day and yet more beekeeping. Hopefully that’s all the intervention they’ll need for today though. After catching the swarm from Clettwr yesterday it was housed in a temporary plastic nuc box overnight. We have run out of suitable equipment to accommodate any more colonies so borrowed a triple nuc box contraption from Ann. Essentially...

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Swarming Bees – Followed by a catch

Alan Cole — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:18:19 +0000

Well, our inexperience with beekeeping has been shown once again. I was hoping for a nice easy inspection today. We inspected last week and reported that all was well in Clettwr but the bees in Leri had swarmed. Today I had hoped to have a quick check in Clettwr to make sure there were no...

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