Queen Guinevere and Queen Dulce are ready for a new box. In this video I show the details of how I "pyramid up" to expand the brood nest and encourage the bees to move up into the new box.
Video Link
The trap-out experiment is at an end. The hive in the wall appears dead or trapped and will soon be dead. There were a good number of survivors in the hive body, but they are queenless. Rather than take eggs from a strong hive and basically create a split, I decided to just add these bees to another smaller colony (Queen Elizabeth) that could really use the boost in population. I used the newspaper method of combining the 2 colonies and will check up on them again in another 7 days.
It was interesting to observe the difference in behavior of a queenless colony. They still worked together and were loyal to the hive, but they were also less active, less interested in working, and almost seemed melancholy. They were still foraging, but at a less active pace.
I left the mesh cone in place just in case there are still remaining bees in the wall that are alive and work their way out. They'll either find a new hive to move into (there are some hives just across the field) or they'll die off. There won't be many though. I'll return in a couple weeks to clean up the cone and window and seal things off.
Video Link
No comments:
Post a Comment