Uninvited Guests

Arriving home this afternoon from checking my bees I walked down the garden and suddenly recognized a familiar sound! A swarm arriving and setting up in an empty nucleus box in my storage shelter. Lets see if they stay and how they progress. They are not my bees so some local beekeeper has lost out and I may hopefully have gained.

UNWANTED GUESTS

During todays' inspections I came across an empty hive with a nest of 6 mice; although I don't mind the mice  they do make a mess of the comb and so I had to evict them, especially with a colony of bees anxiously waiting!

Swarm

Collected a swarm tonight located in a branch junction of a tree/bush in a lovely old ladies' back garden. It was quite an awkward position and I had to resort to shaking and brushing the bees into a skep; but think I have the queen and 99% of bees. It looked like a prime swarm though the next few weeks will tell me more as they settle into their new hive.

2014 QUEENS

I saw my first new queen of 2014 today :-) What a burly bruiser she is too. Laying away and the hive is beginning to grow again. Truly one of the best sites to behold! And it gives me such a good feeling!!