That's great, Helen (and Mike and Mark). Bonus: by boxing them you probably
saved some bees / brood which would have been lost to the hail / chilling.
I hope the sting is not still hurting.
Yes, brood are capped 8-9 days after being laid as an egg, and as this is
presumably a cast (3rd swarm) the queen would need 1-3 days minimum to mate
first.
On a cheery note, there is an article in New Scientist about a Japanese
wasp whose brood regularly cannibalise their siblings when snackish!
Paul
On Mon, 30 May 2022, 22:24 Helen Nunn, <helenmaynunn@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Paul
Lynne will have told you that I rang earlier to ask about the people who
still want swarms. We had another on our allotment today - the neighbouring
plot has (or rather had!) three very overgrown gooseberry bushes which the
chap and his wife were netting. They had more or less done the job when
they realised there was a swarm of bees right in the middle, attached to
about three of the main stems at perhaps knee-height. You can perhaps
imagine the scenario! But wait a moment - there was also a fair amount of
comb already built. How to tackle it???
I contacted Mark Sandham, who promised to come and help, and take it to
Gulen's hive in Cumnor. We had to remove a fair bit of bush, and then try
and cut out the stems - which was not entirely successful, I have to admit.
I got stung through my gardening glove which I had forgotten to change, but
it's not too serious, fortunately. We managed to gather up the bits of comb
etc and Mark put them on his sheet, underneath a substantial box. They
seemed to be fanning, so we left them to it. Until the rain/hail storm at
teatime!
We dashed up to the allotment and gathered up the slightly soggy box and I
drove it home, fully suited up - Mike walked! (The sheet wasn't very easy
to tie.) Mark collected it later and has now hived it - but apparently
there was a fair bit of capped brood already in the combs. Does that mean
they have been there for a couple of weeks?
Anyway, I'm hoping that's enough swarms for this year - I've given away
three now. Sorry we didn't take photos.
Bye for now
Helen
