6/19/10

Roberta's fence cut-out adventure


L.A. Backwards Beekeeper Roberta says:
There was a lot of old comb from a cut out from a fence in Hawthorne—there must have been about 5 feet of it. But there wasn’t any brood, so the hive had gone queenless or had a virgin queen.

There were also 4-5 queen cells, one of which seemed to have been used. There was a lot of honey and a whole bunch of angry bees. It was hard to lure the bees into a box even with honey laden comb. So I tried to use a swarm I had caught but the bees lined up in front of the box but wouldn’t or couldn’t get in.

In the end I just brushed them into a nuc, got stung a lot and the stranglers were vacuumed up.

I’m hoping to add these to another hive.