Back in May, I visited the bees at Knockhatch Adventure Park, and there had been a small cast swarm in the bait box. We’d put this in a National, and kept an eye on them. I had last checked them from the outside at the end of August, and they had been bringing in pollen and there was plenty of activity. Paul had a call … Continue reading Another post mortem…
Continuing with the feral bee theme, Paul had put up bait hives in Market Wood in the hope of enticing a swarm from one of the nearby oak tree colonies. Sure enough, there was lots of activity and bringing in of pollen when he checked after a week or so. We decided that these bees should be brought back to my apiary, so that I … Continue reading National Trust Swarm
The oak tree bees were very busy when we last visited Knockhatch Adventure Park, and according to the staff, the bees had swarmed on Wednesday 15th, but nobody had seen where they went. We checked our bait boxes: the one nearest the colony had bees! We weren’t sure whether they were the swarm from the previous week, as they had been there “a couple of … Continue reading Knockhatch Swarm
Last year, Paul was tipped off about some bees in an aged oak at Knockhatch Adventure Park and yesterday we went to see them, and hear about their history from Colin, the Managing Director of the family-owned Park. The colony currently resides in the trunk of the tree, but originally they were in a branch which fell down, at which point the bees relocated. Of … Continue reading Tree Bees at Knockhatch
