Here it goes...
A Most
Uncommon Problem
or
How to make
a Possum Warre Hive
Woz
the swarm collector offered me an unusual bee colony as I had missed out on the
swarm season. So, along with my neighbour (new to bee activities) we set off to
Woz’s place in the hills to collect a rescued possum box and a nuc. The bees in
the PB had already established their colony, so the issue was how to transfer
them to a regular hive situation in the least disruptive way. Shouldn’t be too
hard, I thought (I should have taken notice of the wry smile on Woz’s face) .
So, we collected the two colonies, put them in the back of the car and
following Woz’s suggestion, we kept our protective gear on for the journey.
Good thing too, as we had missed a couple of holes in taping the PB up, and a
few of the girls came out to party! Not a problem if the car has a boot, but mine
is a hatchback! So we drove home surrounded by flying friends and laughing
onlookers. So take note all ye bee gatherer – wear your gear for the trip home!
We put the respective boxes in the backyards and I
went inside to do a bit of design work.
I needed to make up an adapting collar to fit
the PB to an existing Warre base as the box was slightly smaller. You can see
from the photo of the PB that it needed modification to fit the collar. That
required cutting off the entry cover, removing the base (glued and screwed) and
cutting the right hand side at the base as it overlapped the bottom. All of
this had to take place while the girls continued working through the large
entry hole in the side. So I made a collar to the exact dimensions of
the base of the PB and allowed an overlap of a few mil to act as a water runoff. Then came the process of cutting, chiseling and unscrewing to bare the base. I also left part of the overhang to
protect from rain and sun. All went well and the PB fitted perfectly. Next
problem was to block the large entry hole at the top and allow only entry from
the base of the Warre. I screwed a side plate over the hole and waited – no
bees came out where they were supposed to. I thought then that they may need a
bit of training, so I drilled a 40 mil hole at the bottom of the box and waited
again. Still no activity!
On closer inspection through
the hole,I noticed a few leaves inside so I lifted the PB yet again onto the
work bench and proceeded to extract 100 mil thick lump of possum bedding that
was compressed in the base. It’s amazing what possums collect to make a
comfortable bed!
Back went the PB onto its
base and lo and behold, the bees came out and went about their business as
though nothing had happened. The foragers returned from their activities and
after flying around the old entrance for a while, made their way to the new
front door.
All of which goes to prove that they are very
adaptable , having undergone several relocations, very intrusive noise and
vibrations and extreme changes to their habitat while continuing to function as
a colony.
My next challenge is to ultimately get rid of
the PB and turn it into a full Warre. One suggestion is to next year put a
queen excluder between the boxes (making sure the queen is in the bottom box
first) then clean out the top box and replace it. I welcome any suggestions
from the group if you have any other ideas. In any case , it will be a long
term process.
Thanks to Woz for the opportunity to try
something different. I imagine that this will be a one off, but it has been a
most interesting challenge.
PS, the neighbours nuc
transfer was a piece of cake!
Laurie Bradford
The Bee Group
No comments:
Post a Comment