We are expanding

It's been a while since our last blog update, so we wanted to fill you in on our recent adventures and introduce you to two special hives and their journey.

Recently, we've had to expand our apiary to accommodate our growing colonies. This year, our focus has been less on honey production and more on increasing our number of colonies.

We needed to install some new posts and rails so we could make room for more hives in the apiary. On a day when the bees stayed inside due to the weather, we took the opportunity to quickly knock in some wooden fencing posts. Using a hydraulic post knocker on a digger, we were pleasantly surprised at how little the bees were disturbed by the process.

With the rails attached, we're now ready to add more empty hives to our apiary, and we’re prepared to house the new colonies we've created or collected. Our goal is to keep growing our number of hives so we can meet the increasing demand for our honey in the future.

We also have an update on some colonies from a previous blog post. We recently rescued two swarms from Barrow-in-Furness. These bees began their journey in a transport box to our apiary and were then placed in a nuc box. There, they could establish themselves with resources and future workers before moving into a hive.

After spending time in the Nuc boxes and building enough resources and future workers, as well as ensuring they had a mated queen laying fertilised eggs, the bees eventually moved into full-sized hives when they began to run low on space.

We provided them with a feeder containing sugar and honey supplements to help them build more brood (future workers) and fill the hives with essential food stores and resources needed for the colony's survival.

While one colony appears stronger than the other, we used a frame of eggs to help the queenless colony create a new queen. We continue to feed and monitor the hives during our inspections to ensure they remain healthy and robust before winter arrives.

Our observations are crucial to ensuring that each hive has a laying queen, enough workers to support the brood, and sufficient food and resources to prevent starvation.

We hope to be creating a few more stories with each hive and giving updates on their progress soon