Spruce's honey bees

i'll try Spruce but...eh, no promises ok lol that's great to hear the tiny bee's not ill or anything & is actually supposed to be that size happy days, this makes me very happy

you've a lot to answer for by the way Spruce whilst watching & waiting for the little bee to make an appearance (in scorching sun) i got a touch of heat stroke...i could blame myself...but i prefer to blame you! lol i will actually start trying to get pics of the different creepy crawlies that visit the garden though, i quite enjoyed watching out for & then taking pics of the tiny little bee...heat stoke aside i enjoyed myself lol

 

Hi All

these are pictures of a "bait hive" which means its empty of bees at the moment and I am hoping to entice a swarm of bees to live here in the 1st photo you can see a couple of bees having a nose about I will keep you posted if I manage to get one , its a des res though .

 

roof could do with retiling Spruce and the walls need a lick of paint...

 

Jens
its a polystyrene hive not wooden like my other two , and on top of this is a black tray with 4 courgettes harding off before I plant them at the weekend , but with all the bees flying I left it all alone

Spruce

 

A Swarm of Bees in May​

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A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm of bees in July
Is not worth a fly.​

​

 

Brilliant Spruce .....so i'm guessing that's a temporary home ....so if they move in what happens next...will you have to get another hive?

 

Hi Loli

Its a spare hive so they will stay in that if they stay ?

I will move it down to the apiary once it has settled in plus I need to check for disease 1st.

They may be scout bees (must of been 50 plus) so if not already in the hive hopefully tomorrow they may arrive , glad I will be at work .

 

Hi Spruce, I have a colony of Tree Bumblebees nesting in an old bird box at the moment

 

Going a bit off topic - but BBC4 had an interesting documentary about bees last week - still on iPlayer if you have the technology!

Who Killed the Honey Bee ?

Not sure it told me anything I didnt know, but amazed by the Americans who have an entire industry for moving bees around to polinate things.

 

Hi Spruce......did the bees move into the new hive?

 

late evening from 8.30 onwards depends if the sun is still on the plants I suppose ? most have stopped flying by then but easy to check and leave 30 mins or so ..... and recheck... see what's buzzing plus its cooler to be doing any jobs in the garden

shiney

Spruce

 

update 19th July

Bees are doing really well , went and checked them at 11am this morning before the temperature rockets as in being in a bee suit it feels like a sauna, I thank the person who invented air con in cars I sat there for 10 mins before I drove off .

New queens have taken just over 4 weeks to come in to lay !!! at one point I thought I didnt have any but gave them another 10 days before planing to do something about it so I have new larvae (pearly white) in the bottom of the cells , one super is full of honey on one hive and 3/4 full on the other hive so I will pop down tomorrow and add another super on each should've done this last week but didn't want to disturb the new queens plus it will give them more space.

Lots of bees collecting water from the brook so they have the aircon all sorted which they will need today , they don't get sun on the hives until 12.00 ish then full sun until it sets so its a in a cracker of a spot

So looks like a bumper crop as the Himalayan Balsam is just coming into flower, and being a water meadow everything still looking nice and green.

I will do some photos next time I open them up


Spruce

 

Hi Fern

NO it rained the following day , I just knew they wouldn't arrive.

They were really black as well and I would've loved to see what they are like to handle and production of honey etc ....

Sorry I never got back sooner I hadn't realised you had posted

Spruce