We were called to assist with a colony of bees which had decided to make their home in a hedgehog house - whilst the hedgehog still lived their! We opened up the roof of the hive and found the bees had made 6 combs with eggs, larvae and stores. It is always fascinating to see the way that combs are made in the wild, straight, with exactly the right amount of space between the wax.
We carefully cut each of the combs out of the box and then fixed them into frames within our nucleus box using elastic bands.
Once all the frames were transferred we shook the rest of the bees into the box and left them for a 24 hours until all of the bees had worked their way into the box.
We have now transferred this colony to one of our apiaries and we will help to them to build up strongly ready for the winter.
Tulipewa kazi ya kusaidia koloni ya nyuki ambao walikuwa wameamua kuishi katika nyumba ya hedgehog - wakati hedgehog bado aliishi yao! Tulifungua paa la kiota na kuona kwamba nyuki walikuwa wamefanya makundi sita ya mayai, mabuu na vitu vingine. Ni mara nyingi kuvutia kuona jinsi combs ni kufanywa katika mazingira ya asili, moja kwa moja, na kiasi sahihi kabisa ya nafasi kati ya wax. Kwa hivyo, kwa uangalifu, tunakatwa kila moja ya combs nje ya sanduku na kisha kuifunga katika muafaka ndani ya sanduku letu la kiini kwa kutumia bendi za elastic. Baada ya kuhamisha pande zote, tunapiga nyuki wengine ndani ya sanduku na kuwaacha kwa masaa 24 hadi nyuki wote wafanye kazi ndani ya sanduku. Sasa tumehamisha koloni hii kwenye moja ya nyumba zetu za nyuki na tutawasaidia kujenga nguvu tayari kwa majira ya baridi.