Additionally I have expanded my colonies by taking on an apiary from a lady who needed to step back from beekeeping for medical reasons. Not only did I acquire a 14x12 deep national populated with a full house of very feisty bees but the site is on a farm with many fields of Oil Seed Rape so I will certainly need to up my game and make regular visits although the farm lane is currently flooded and in-passable which makes life pretty difficult.
So imagine my surprise in the pouring rain as I ventured to tidy up around my original hive when I saw a most impressive dripping wet swarm of bees clinging to a bush just 10 feet from the hive. Never having seen a swarm before I had to learn fast although I did seek the assistance of the local beekeeper who originally donated my colony. The bush was a prize bush and couldn't be hacked so much shaking and sue of smoke got sodden clumps of bees into cardboard boxes and then into my freshly acquired 14x12 Nuc hive later transferred to the farm apiary. When last visited they were doing great guns and drawing out the fresh foundation ... so that was 3 colonies when I had only expected to have 1 some 2 weeks earlier.
And today I just missed a swarm emerging from my original hive but was able to see it settle in a hedge just behind the house and now a dab hand at this collection game I swiftly dropped the colony into my new polystyrene Nuc hive which had literally just arrived. I was a little annoyed that I had missed the signs of swarming but the weather has been shocking this week and as such I've not been able to get near the hive on a dry day let alone search for queen cells and the like ...
So now I have 4 colonies; 3 on the farm and 1 at home still. It is going to be a busy summer.
