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The story of the swarm collection:
It was a large swarm, collected from the Addiscombe/Shirley borders in mid-July, i.e. late in the swarming season. They had set up home in a compost bin for at least two weeks and so had built an extensive comb. I set up a closed floor hive with an empty brood box nearby, facing the back fence and trees. In the evening, David cut the comb from the lid, which fell into the box without killing the queen. My son Michael, for whom the swarm was intended, and I then attempted to cut it up slightly, supporting the angled combs with empty brood frames and elastic bands. Three days later, all the bees were using the new hive and in the evening, Michael and I closed it up, strapped it and took it through the terraced house of the bin’s owner and down to the Hartley Down apiary. There they have thrived, gradually building and discarding the old elastic bands, filling a brood and a half, plus another super of stores. Hopefully, they will make it through this hard winter and Michael can change the brood frames in the spring and move to an open floor. It seemed a waste to force them onto new brood comb straight after collection, especially as the comb was extensive and largely undamaged by the transfer.
Kind regards,
Paul