Thursday, April 4, 2013

The Little Mean Bees Have Been Renamed

They will no longer be called the "Bees who sting first and ask questions later", they shall now be called the "McFadden Bees".  <insert dramatic fanfare here>

I like them.  The hive is loaded with bees, they must have started their build up early.  I believe that these bees were feral bees that Pat McFadden and a friend of his collected from a structure one day.  I don't know when this happened but his son-in-law, Peter, witnessed the collection and told me that even on that day they weren't a happy lot.  As you can see in the video, I stirred them up quite a bit, but they weren't nearly as aggressive as they were last fall when I first tried to move them.  I finally broke down and purchased a hive net.  Ramona and I moved them Friday night the 29th of March.  They seem to be settling in very well.

What I like about them is their numerical strength this early in the season.  All of this without my interference.  If I can, I will split the hive and make two colonies out of the one.  I'll let the bees produce a new queen for the new colony from their own stock.  I am trying to make plans to witness hive splitting with the Vinduska's and with McCreight.  I met McCreight on the 31st at an Easter Pageant and he seems to have his beekeeping act together.  I could learn a lot from either of these men.

Check out the video  http://youtu.be/uq2FfJcfkuI

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