Wednesday, May 27, 2015

They're back!


As you can see, the cluster moved back to the bait hive today.  Now we know that they do not remember the attack yesterday or at least do not care.
In order to make the box easier to get to, after all the bees were in I moved it down to the table top with another improvised ant defense.
This swarm left its home 4 days ago and has not had anything to eat since.  Before swarming, the bees gorge on honey, enough for just a few days.  Now that they are in their new home, the number one priority is to draw comb so the queen can start laying.  It takes 7-8 pounds of honey to make a pound of wax.  A pound of wax is estimated to be enough for 3-5 frames.  Since my new girls (actually old girls; it is the queen and older foragers from Olea's hive) are probably a little low on food, I decided to feed them.
The entrance feeder would not fit.  The opening is high enough but there is a bar in the center making both sides too narrow.  In the lid of this nuc are 4 holes.  Two are not screened.   All four have moveable lids.  I realized the top feeders that I used in the Vivaldi boxes might fit.  Sure enough, the flange fit into the hole.  But the feeder did not lay flat.  There was a board in the way.
 What to do?  This board is not structural and is held on by staples.  Aha!
I had to be careful not to disturb the hive too much.  I could not use a hammer, which would have made it easy.  I actually used a screw driver for most of the prying.
The end result- the feeder lays flat.
I filled the feeder with 1:1 sugar water and the bees were in it right away.
Since the feeder is translucent and usually inside a box, I thought too much light might disturb the colony.  An easy solution.
All I need is some brown and orange paint!
Tomorrow, Maidi and I will put the frames in.  A report will follow.

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