Well they sound fine. I have a hiving story too. I put a swarm in a TBH
with three old brood combs near the entrance to act as bait, and encourage
them to build straight comb between them (i.e. the old combs, which are
nice and straight are acting as comb guides.) ON opening the hive a few
weeks later I found they had built 4 nice combs... at the BACK of the hive,
studiously ignoring the ones next to the entrance. Because they smell of
the wrong queen or something.
So - an exception to the "rule" that they build next to the entrance.
Regarding your points...
- Temper may calm down, it varies a lot over the year. One major factor
is stores. If they are a bit stretched they defend what they have. You
can't really tell their baseline temperament yet. I should warn you they
will be more ready to sting next year when the colony is larger, and
established, and can afford to lose a few workers in a fight - but that
only comes into play if they see you as a threat. It's often commented on
by beekeepers who open their hives a lot.
- Foragers tend to either collect pure pollen or just nectar but some
get both - those latter are the ones with not-full pollen baskets. The
number collecting pollen varies from none to about 20%, and Gareth
mentioned a few weeks ago that what the bees do is build up about 10-12
days' supply of pollen, then they switch back to prioritising nectar. So
not seeing pollen going in can be a* good* sign.
- Some collect water on hot days or in Spring (to dilute honey - bees
don't generally eat *pure* honey) I have read that water and nectar
carriers look swollen on returning to the hive, but I haven't really
noticed that myself. And apparently if you squeeze them they regurgitate
it.
- A handful collect propolis. They get very sticky.
On the weird side, you hear occasional reports of bees collecting fungal
spores, or coffee grains. I found a very good and likely sounding
explanation for this in a book by Quimby written in 1853 or something. They
were great observers back then. He pointed out that this tends to happen in
spring, before there is much pollen, and the foragers seem programmed to
grab anything resembling pollen, so they grab any grains about that size -
he mentioned coffee grounds and sawdust. Whether these are of any
nutritional value is "not their job"!
Paul
On Fri, 9 Jul 2021 at 09:21, Rh <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Just a quick update on the swarm I had from your bait box just over 3
weeks ago, Paul.
After my disastrous interventions with the previous swarm and the
following comb collapse and absconding , I’ve just let this lot alone apart
from removing the board underneath after a few chilly days to prevent
overheating.
Yesterday I had a look for the first time since hiving them .
I originally transferred in 3 bars with comb plus bees from the bait box
and now there 5 in total, well combed and , though I didn’t look closely,
some brood I hope ...?.. honey stores etc
There are 8 more before the follower board - all new empty comb. The 8th
is obviously tiny at the moment but all very straight :) and not looking at
all precarious, or over soft.
They are a different character, I noticed, to the previous swarm.
These became irritated at even my very tentative inspection and grumpy
with gentle brushing away with the goose feather.
So I said thank you and left !
They seem settled but I didn’t inspect enough to determine status of brood
or spot the Queen....
The previous swarm seemed, on the face of it, to take my newbie poking
around in the hive without much upset....
Until they left the next day!
Lots to observe and learn...and the forum helping so much.
Thank you and I’ll keep updating.
Some questions - when pollen is collected do they also forage nectar at
the same time?
Do some only forage nectar? I see lots of what I think are workers
without pollen and not on navigation flights I don’t think.
How do they determine what to forage most of..
Availability of each?
Need of the hive?
Both?
Thanks all
Rh
Sent from my iPhone
