I can`t believe it - both hives swarmed last week and here`s me thinking I had made a good job of checking for queen cells acouple of weeks ago. This is the nuc with the swarm from Miro, it was easy to capture, having landed in a small maple tree in the garden. A beekeeper friend asked if he could have it as he had lost a hive recently, I wish I had kept it now as I am going to be putting 2 hives out on a friends lifestyle block in the countryside as soon as I get the bees !!!The bees from Matai landed on a high fence and were quite happy there, or so I thought ... Dashed off to get acouple of boxes from a friend, leaving the swarm happily buzzing away in the sunshine, got back 20 mins later and they had vanished, not a bee to be seen - I was cross with myself for not putting them into a cardboard box or the like until I got back - never trust homeless bees ...
A friend and I have brought quite abit of hive gear including a 4 frame extracter, electric uncapping knife, excluder and hive boxes, lids etc from a gentleman who has had to give up beekeeping after nearly 60 years as his eye sight is failing. I really felt for Bernard, he had a great collection of books also that he very kindly has given to me. I will post about them later - some really old books which I can`t wait to read.
I will be extracting this week hopefully as there are a number of frames full of capped honey already.
4 comments:
That looks like a fascinating passion to have! I love the picture of the bees on the fence.
I hope you'll post some pictures of your bee books. I'd love to see them ...
What a miracle a swarm is. Years ago when we had bees it happened once, and we could walk right amongst them with no fear of being stung. Ngaio, I thought you might like to see the site/newsletter from which we get our honey each year.
http://honeygardens.com/hnews.html
Your picture of the swarm is amazing. I envy your experience, even though you lost the bees in the end. I missed the hive that swarmed at my house - didn't even know they had left until days afterward. Great description!
Great sharre
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