lucky find at new site

Hi All,

Approached another local farm this week to gauge interest of having some of my bees on their sites/land and was welcomed with open arms. Turns out that they are affiliated to the same farming group that own the site I already keep all my bees these days, result.......

They offer me a few sites locally and i check them out. Only one is really suitable for the bees and for security and I advise them of my choice. I go back to the preferred site to check it out more closely and look what I find nestled in the undergrowth......(hopefully pic upload works)

Turns out that they used to have a beekeeper who kept bees on this site years ago and he left some empty equipment behind. The stack of supers on the left has a pretty large colony inside who have moved in via a gap between the supers. Iside is almost all Wild comb but they are now in the process of moving into a nice new 14x12.

Go out forthwith and purchase a lottery ticket!

galileo said:

Go out forthwith and purchase a lottery ticket!

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Lol....Will do

Did i mention that the new site is also just across the way from 20 acres of OSR in full bloom too.

does pig s*** and roses come to mind.
two good looking roofs if the rest is rotten there is about ten pounds , one pound on lottery would not break the bank. good luck with the new site

yeogi75 said:

does pig s*** and roses come to mind.
two good looking roofs if the rest is rotten there is about ten pounds , one pound on lottery would not break the bank. good luck with the new site

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Someone hasn't done the Lotto recently!!



We don't either.

....the zinc roofs are worth saving

Love to see the wild comb once they are re-housed!

Varroa tolerant bees then, Please PM me your lottery numbers

richardbees said:

....the zinc roofs are worth saving

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Yeah plan to save what i can.

There is 3 x serviceable cedar supers, 2 good roofs (+ a third that only the Metal can be saved) and 2 x cedar brood boxes which need some attention to make serviceable. The stands are all rotten but there are several plastic crates around which make ok stands for nuc's and small colonies so not bad at all really. I asked the farm owners to try to contact the original beek just out of courtesy but no luck getting hold of them yet.

rockdoc said:

Love to see the wild comb once they are re-housed!

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I will post a pic once transfer is complete. Its a real jigsaw puzzle inside!
From the top you can see parts of frames which have just collapsed and the edges are all rounded off like driftwood or something

Trust you are going to hand it all in to the police as 'found property' like a good citizen should do..... That will include your lottery winnings as they are a by product of your crime!
E

Dazzabee said:

Yeah plan to save what i can.

There is 3 x serviceable cedar supers, 2 good roofs (+ a third that only the Metal can be saved) and 2 x cedar brood boxes which need some attention to make serviceable. The stands are all rotten but there are several plastic crates around which make ok stands for nuc's and small colonies so not bad at all really. I asked the farm owners to try to contact the original beek just out of courtesy but no luck getting hold of them yet.

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Good for you, it's nice to hear of someone having a bit of good fortune.
I hope for your sake that the original beek is no longer interested and it all works out in your favour.

REDWOOD said:

Varroa tolerant bees then, Please PM me your lottery numbers

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I hope so!
I haven't managed to inspect properly yet obviously so we'll have to wait and see exactly what I have.

They were very tolerant of me opening up their home and breaking the tops of the wild comb though. Just a little puff of smoke between the supers and No pinging my veil or stinging or following etc.

enrico said:

Trust you are going to hand it all in to the police as 'found property' like a good citizen should do..... That will include your lottery winnings as they are a by product of your crime!
E

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Of course Enrico, just as soon as I'm finished with it all!!

Let me just amend my list.....

Beesand said:

Good for you, it's nice to hear of someone having a bit of good fortune.
I hope for your sake that the original beek is no longer interested and it all works out in your favour.

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Thank you.
I've also made my own investigations locally to the site and have spoken to a few people I've met living nearby and who also have access to this gated site and they have mentioned that it was an elderly lady who kept bees on the site in the past. Apparently she got ill and could no longer keep them. The colonies were taken away by someone but these few pc's were left behind. I'm guessing that someone came and took away the good stuff leaving the damaged/unwanted stuff behind. Then at some point after that the stand half collapsed shifting the supers creating the entrance gap and the current bees took advantage and moved in.

Great news. What a project

An update for those who are interested.

The project is advancing nicely.
Returned just under 2 weeks after adding the 14x12 to find bees covering 9 & 1/2 drawn out frames with 7 containing eggs and open brood and a nice fat unmarked queen in the B/Box too. I placed a Q/Ex between my new box and the supers to keep her laying there and part 1 of the project is complete.

On the next visit I intend to move onto part 2 reversing the current set up and placing onto a nice new stand and OM Floor. Probably also adding another drawn super for extra stores space as they are very close to that OSR I mentioned before.

All seems to have gone well so far........

No wish to pour cold water on your find, but Defra has informed local beekeepers to Chelmsford in Essex of an AFB out break in your area.
Abandoned colonies ( as well as feeding imported infected honey) are one of the main caused of outbreaks of this devastating disease.
Via a beekeeper in Essex on Facebook

James Templer said:

No wish to pour cold water on your find, but Defra has informed local beekeepers to Chelmsford in Essex of an AFB out break in your area.
Abandoned colonies ( as well as feeding imported infected honey) are one of the main caused of outbreaks of this devastating disease.
Via a beekeeper in Essex on Facebook

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Hi James,

Oh no!
Had to deal with efb in my very first year as a beek, not nice. Everything destroyed and started again. Luckily at the time I was a 1 hive beek.

I think that the report you refer to is the one north of Chelmsford? Luckily that is an hours drive or so from me so hopefully far enough.

I guess I should have also mentioned in my previous posts that I am using seperate gloves and veil to inspect the 'feral' colony until I am able to see the brood properly i.e sealed etc.

Also I believe that this is not an abandoned colony as my investigations have resulted in that the original bees were all taken away. Also there isn't a full hive set up in the usual fashion here, just a couple of supers on an old stand with a crown board and roof. Obviously I do not know where this colony originally swarmed from but they appear to be thriving. Time will tell I guess.

I thought EFB could be cured with a shook swarm and destruction of brood and comb plus antibiotics? AFB is a different beastie.