Populating New Hive Enclosure
I am beginning to think I didn’t make the enclosure big enough!
This artificial swarming business…. thank goodness the flow is on and the girls have something else to occupy their time!
The far hive was created from RH1 which came through the winter roaring and determined to cause many hours of stress.
The middle tiny hive was created using a swarm collected from a plush hotel in High Holborn. I received a call, grabbed my superhero swarm kit and enticed the swarm to Camden (not a lot of choice for the girls really! Nuc’s are costing a fortune with the upturn in interest!).
The hive in the forground was created from a swarm which was hanging aroung the aircons on the roof. Not a lot of evidence that they were from RH1 as she still has the Queen from last year – possibly from the split from RH2 – or maybe they wanted to join in the desres environment of Camden.
RH1 - and growing
RH1 in all her current glory. For a Queen in her second year she is performing remarkably well – original dam was a Buckfast Queen.
Exit to London Forage
Here is a view of the exit from the small room enclosure enjoyed by RH1 to one of the greenest Capital cities in the world. We have Regents Park, Hampstead Common and myriads of gardens ground based and those with loftier pretensions all pumping out Nectar and Pollen for my girls.
Pretty soon the Lime trees planted everywhere along the street are going to come into bloom and then there will be honey by the gallon loads – the labelling will be Halpern Honey which has a nicer ring to it than HC Bee Project Honey.
Our fabulous design team is working on it as I type!
