So, last time I collected a swarm, and just as I was finishing up I noticed that my box of spares had got out of alignment - and some bees were now hanging around the unplanned entrance:
I had a closer look, and there was indeed a gap at the bottom of the one of the boxes, wide enough to let bees in and out:
There were some previously-used honey frames in the stack, and I wondered whether the bees had smelled the wax and had popped in to see whether there was still any old honey in the comb that they could steal for an easy meal. I thought I'd better take a look, so I took the roof off, and carefully lifted the crown-board for a better look. Well, this was a surprise:
Yes, that is a swarm of bees! They'd clearly decided to ignore the two fully-furnished 'bait' hives that I'd left open and available, and had instead chosen to spurn the designer residence option and opt for a 'doer-upper' instead. As you can see, they'd already started making themselves right at home by building some new comb, which they'd attached to the underside of the crown board.
That was Friday morning, and I really needed to get back to work. So I carefully closed up and left them to it.
On Saturday I had plenty of time, and some fair weather, so I collected everything I might need (bee jacket, smoker, two hive tools and secateurs, as well as some waxed and unwaxed frames) and headed back to see if I could sort it all out. The first job was to open up one of the hives, and take all the frames out so that I had an empty brood box to start moving the bees into.
The next task was to shake the bees off the crown-board and into the hive. That left the new comb exposed - which I didn't want to waste, as the bees have worked so hard to make it (it takes around 10 millilitres of honey to make 1 gram of wax, so it's an expensive business for the bees to produce it). I carefully cut the two pieces of new comb off the crown-board, with the idea that I might be able to re-use them.
I had to improvise, so I picked some foundation wire out of one of the waxed frames, snipped it off with the secateurs, and used it to attach the two pieces to an unwaxed frame. This new frame then went into the brood box, and hopefully the bees will re-attach the comb properly to the top of the frame:
There were still plenty of bees (maybe half the swarm?) in the stack of spare boxes. So the next job was to move the rest of the boxes in the stack over to the hive, on top of the brood box, and let the bees slowly make their way down:
And then take the boxes off, one at a time...:
... until all the bees were in the brood box. You can see from the the following picture how many bees were outside the hive - imagine how many there are inside!
Finally, stack the outer wall ('lifts'):
Put the roof on - and we're done!
So, that's now two swarms successfully hived in one weekend! I'm pleased (and surprised) that I didn't get a single sting while doing any of this. Both colonies seem to be pretty gentle and good-natured, so I'm hoping that means I'm going to have a pleasant and relaxing summer of beekeeping.
