Freya

We went down to top up the syrup in the three hives last night, and while we were down there we opened up Freya, the swarm hive. It had been 6 days since we caught the swarm and I was just desperate to open her up and find out what they had been up to - actually it had been 5 days since they had been in the actual hive box...so maybe a bit premature to go in but I was just keen to go in and see.

For five days they had been BUSY! We have no inner cover yet and they had built a bit of burr comb up under the lid so when I lifted the cover one of the centre frames came up with it (oops) but it wasn't too bad. I removed much of the burr comb and brought that back up with me and added it to my collection (I have a plastic tub that I keep it in).

They have drawn comb on both sides of about four frames maybe part of five......filled much with syrup which I am feeding them with (recommended to me) and have filled some with pollen. We couldn't see any eggs but then it was evening and cloudy and cool and we didn't want to have the hive open long so we didn't have a proper look. I just wanted a quick look to check they were building comb. It HAS only been five days anyway so I shouldn't really expect to see anything I guess. It really is very early days.

The bees aren't the friendliest still -not like my package bees and are different in appearance to my other bees. Still not sure what kind they are. My package bees are Italians. The nasty bees are Africanised - I don't think these are those as they don't seem REALLY nasty but they aren't the gentlest and I think I will always have to veil up etc when I inspect them. Or maybe its just because they are a bigger colony compared to the packages I have - maybe bigger colonies react more like that - I have yet to find out.

Lloyd wants me to look for more swarms - he'd like to advertise for swarms. He tells people 'we' caught a swarm...funny how I don't remember him being there....lol! As far as I recall, HE was at work ;) but I love that he's as excited as I am :)

Anyway, the bees have been very busy, four frames drawn in 5 days, no signs of eggs but in five days I'm not surprised I'll leave them and check again next weekend (not this weekend coming but the weekend after. By then we should see eggs as a sign of a laying Queen.

I'm going to inspect my other hives Flora and Fauna on Canada Day.....we may even see baby bees being born! THAT would be amazing!

So far I am very happy with this swarm I captured and hived - free bees and they are settling in well - guzzling syrup, drawing comb nicely and collecting pollen...hopefully next time I check there will be eggs to see :)