Hostile takeover.

Last winter I had a hive vandalised.https://acquest13.wordpress.com/2019/11/27/apiary-disaster-part-1/?preview=trueThe bees spent the winter in my Polytunnel and became quite friendly. They were never able to store much honey though and just ate the food I gave them each week. As soon as it felt warm enough I moved them outside and although they initially started collecting pollen (a good sign the queen is laying) they never really seemed very busy.As soon as it was warm enough I opened them and gave them a check. The queen was there, quite happily wandering about and the bees were calm and busy. As they were quite small in number I moved them into a nucleus box so they had less space to heat.I hoped this would perk them up but it has become clear that the queen had stopped laying and the hive was dying out. In general at this point a beekeeper would kill the Queen and unite the bees with another hive. However, my other hives are all huge and don’t need more bees, it is nice having friendly bees flying around the garden and mainly, I like the queen. I couldn’t bring myself to kill her.I decided to leave it to nature and let them die out naturally.I had heard that swarms sometimes takeover a weak hive but having never had a weak hive I had no idea if that was true, until today.While planting a few herbs in my new raised bed I realised I was surrounded by a lot of bees. I was in the middle of the tail end of a swarm that were literally swarming into the nuc box.

I have no idea how it started, whether the original bees were evicted or just surrendered but I’m guessing my lovely Queen has been dispatched, which is sad.So now I have another hive of bees.This is 2020, the year I decided to reduce my bee numbers. The year I decided I’m to old for the heavy lifting and commitment. It’s 2 days after I sold a full hive of bees to a local new beekeeper. I now have just as many as ever, a promise to support the new keeper and a need to buy new equipment.I wanted to be a keeper for a number of years before I got bees and I can’t help feeling that I will be a keeper for a number of years after I decide to stop!