Top Bar Beekeeping Forum

[gunther]

i fed 3 gallons of syrup over 10 days, 1 week ago i put 1 tray of apiguard on. initially there was some exitement, but they soon calmed down.
now there is already much less activity at the entrance, but 8 out of 10 bees carry pollen back, even the pockets not as full as before.
this afternoon, with a bit of sunshine (for a change), suddenly 100reds of
bees came out and had a flyabout for nearly 1 hour, then it was quiet again. havin' a good time with those bees.


cheers gunther

[Gary]

All sounds well there I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
_________________
Gary
www.hirschbachapiary.com
gary@hirschbachapiary.com

Procrastination is the assassination of inspiration!

There are good men willing to do evil things to protect you from evil men doing evil things in the name of good.

[Nijal]

Gunther - I am most interested (especially as we live nearby). Could you tell us a little more about how you got your bees and what kind of hive you are using?

Nigel

[gunther]

hi nijal
those bees are a feral swarm, that moved into an abandoned national
hive ( 1 box, 2 supers, noQX,). they started nicely from the top, building
natural comb, as a mouse and waxmoth had destroyed everything, that
was in there before. since they arrived late in july, after building a beautiful broodnest, they ran out of time to collect stores, and i had to feed them.
majority are very dark bees, but there are some lighter ones as well, i have never seen a drone, which i take for a sign of a young, well laying
queen.
now i treat the hive like a warre, only adding boxes with topbars under-
neath. as i've said before, everything seems well, and i'm looking forward
to next spring with those bees.

best regards guenther

[Nijal]

Thanks for the info Gunther. Is it common for feral bees to take up residence in a disused hive? Can you 'bait' a hive to make it more likely they will come?

[gunther]

hi nigel
i had 2 TBH bait-hives nearby ( they were new, only each had a split
in it the year before, where the virgin queens failed to mate, 2-3 empty
combs and some bait-creme ( from beekeepers supply).
the bees chose the very old and messy hive, that must have still smelt
more of bees. next year i will try to melt some old comb, honey and some
propolis, into a box and see how it works.

regards guenther