Colony 17

A quick check under the Varroa screen of Colony 17 showed that the bees are building comb. There were shiny wax platelets in a shower where under where they've clustered. There is also evidence that they're cleaning out other parts of the hive. I found 2 dead wax moth larvae and some other detritus.

It's still too soon to see whether they do have a Queen in there. I tried the 'knock test' -- to see whether they remain agitated after a knock on the side of the hive -- but it was inconclusive.

I don't usually feed my colonies. I'm especially cautious about feeding swarms because they arrive with honey which can contain spores from a variety of diseases including the devastating American Foulbrood. The usual advice is to leave the bees alone for a week. They will build comb and use up the honey which they arrive with.

When I put Colony 17 into their Commercial hive body I had too few full-sized frames. I increased the number by putting in shallow frames from a super. Yesterday I quickly opened the hive to replace the shallow frames with full-sized deep frames.

I was called by Mary, a member of my group. She had caught a swarm from her top-bar hive in Headington. She kindly offered me the swarm, knowing how much I value untreated colonies.

The swarm is from a colony which Mary has kept, untreated, for about 2 years in a Top Bar Hive. Before that they came from a feral swarm somewhere near Steeple Aston in Oxfordshire.

I took the swarm down to central Oxford in the early morning and walked them in. They went in very willingly. The swarm was a reasonable size. I didn't see the Queen going in.