And once again I have beez! The swarm coordinator brought them round last night. To backtrack a bit, Husband and I figured out a way of retrofitting a bottom board – we got some tracking from B&Q, husband attached it and now we can slide hardboard along all, part or none of its length, to our hearts’ content. I think the bees will be comforted by the reduced wind and light, but there is still plenty of ventilation as there is a gap between the board and the mesh.
After the swarm coordinator phoned, I shot out to the hive and put in a bag of sugar syrup in readiness. The swarm this time is much bigger – probably double the last one, or even bigger than that – and I gave them less space, so hopefully there won’t be any heat issues this time. I’m sure that’s what the problem was last time.
This morning I watched them for about an hour – they were orienting themselves, going in, out, around, over to the oak tree and back, over to the hedge and back, up the sides, over the roof, in again, out again. We have only one entrance open at the moment, I shall open another after they’ve gone to bed. Tomorrow I’ll risk a look through the observation panel, and if all is well I’ll open the hive up on Thursday or Friday.
