A New Home ..

With a Bank Holiday weekend fast approaching and a new job beckoning I felt under pressure to move my newly acquired colony from the farm which has very little forage to their new home in a walled garden in a local visitor centre.

Friday afternoon saw me constructing a new base and taking the majority of the equipment up to the centre in preparation for the arrival of the colony ..

Having collected the colony from the farm and brought it home overnight I arrived bright and early today to find the gates solidly shut despite all previous arrangements - a slight delay before the serious business began.

The task was to transfer the colony from a commercial hive to my new 14x12 with new foundation  I took the decision to place my new brood box on top with a feeder and to give the colony a week or so to draw out the wax before I conduct a shook swarm and then I intend to leave the commercial box with frames on top of a queen excluder for a further 2 weeks to make the most of the remaining brood.

Luckily the weather was absolutely spot on and the colony very well behaved and I soon had the manipulation complete; I took the opportunity to establish my 14x12 Nuc as a bait hive just in case ..

The apiary is up and running  and the bees appear happy ...