Meet the Brecon Bees! These are the third colony that we originally purchased, which live at Cradoc Road in Brecon.
They have just been inspected by the Seasonal Bee inspector for South Powys. We found several queen cells in various stages of development, some were 10 days old and others were only just forming. As you can see in this picture though I think the old queen has called her troops and they are gathering ready for a swarm.
Conventional bee keepers would have removed all of the queen cells that we found, ensuring that the colony stays together in the hive. As we left all of the queen cells on the frames, we fully expected the colony to swarm at some point - there's only enough space for one queen in any colony!
Apart from the few queen cells the Bee inspector was pleased with the colony being healthy, strong and disease free. So the swarm leaving the hive will hopefully take up residence somewhere and form a healthy wild colony.
Brilliant news! Pleased all is well.
ReplyDeleteHi Andrea!
DeleteFriends of mine have a wild honey bee colony outside their front door. It is becoming a nuisance, and the bees are very busy! Is there a way of moving the colony or is this illegal? I've done some research and can't see any legal reasons not to move them? Any suggestions? Cheers Charlie...