We left you on a cliffhanger before….

So, last time I posted we had queen cell issues. Well, we still do really. We have one very busy hive but are not sure what is going on in there. We have another supersedure cell so have decided to leave it be for a while. Because the hive was so full of bees we have added a second super to make room. This is not scientific in any way and might be the wrong step but with all the research we are doing we just cannot determine what is happening. We called our bee buddy and explained the situation to him, he is great and offers fab advice but it was a case of do that if this happens and do that if the other does. I wrote it all down on a piece of paper. A random piece of paper……maybe a letter from School or a church parade reminder from Scouts.

Where would that piece of paper be now? I cannot remember a spate of panicked tidying this week as, well, it just has not happened. Result is no piece of paper, no advice and I cannot call him up again to tell him we have lost his advice. So, we are winging it, again, it’s not a new situation for us.

This means that we had to also tackle the hive being built under the hive. Big sigh. Bees really are hard work this time of year, mentally not just physically, and during a week where the boy beekeeper has been not unlike a queen bee expecting things to be done around him, it has been a long week.

The hive under the hive looked like this.

Then we took the hive apart and it looked like this

It is not a new hive. There is no structure, it is a swarm!! Turns out they are easy to recognise. Our first swarm, nothing too exiting, wasn’t up a tree or in a car, just gently settled under our own hive.

Collected it, placed it into a NUC (shout if you don’t know what that is by now) and off we go. Soon we need to search for a queen, please keep everything crossed there is one.