Swarm season - from one hive to five!

A couple of months back we had one colony, which we split into two. Then we found one swarm, then a second, then a third! So today we had a record five hives to inspect. So much has happened and this blog is very behind! Here's a potted history of the swarms.

Swarm one was found on 24 May in the bait hive which was left on the roof of the toilet:

The frames in the bait hive were of the conventional type (4-sided frames with foundation wax), suited to a 'national' hive rather than the top bar type used in 'natural' beekeeping. So we opted to build a 'national' hive to give them a more permanent home. Although our chosen route is the natural one, we hope we can use the national hive to show people the differences between a top bar hive and a national one.

The new cedar wood national hive arrived as a flat pack. Tue, Ann, Jon and I set to work, each of us making the roof, the boxes and the frames, with Steve as our supervisor:

 

Result. We placed the new hive as close as possible to the location of the bait box before introducing them to their new home on 11 June.

Swarm two was found on Sunday 21 June. Here's Alistair's photo:

The swarm was lifted into the other half of the first top bar hive we made - the entrance is the hole on the right in the photo below. The first colony is in the left half of the hive but their entrance is on the other side - best to separate the entrances rather than have them side by side, so the bees' flight paths to the entrances arrive from opposite sides. It's not quite Heathrow, but you see what I mean!

Swarm three was found hanging on a small tree in the garden on Tuesday 23rd June. It was coaxed down into the bait box, just below the tree in this picture from today's inspection:

So this is how we went from one hive to five. We will be keeping a close eye on them to see how they all get on. Fingers crossed!