Last week at Digbeth Community Garden we were visited by Darren Welcome of Hives and Honey to do his regular check on our 2 bee hives.
Our bees are doing really well and are producing large quantities of honey. Whilst looking for the queen in one of the hives, Darren noticed that the bees were building extra honeycomb below the frames as the frames were all near full. This meant that some of it needed to be cut away and a new, less deep, hive had to be installed.
Most of the honeycombs in the frames had been capped and sealed meaning the honey is ready inside them. After the excess was cut away (and after some of our volunteers had tried some), it was left nearby for the bees to “rob” back, which they started to do almost instantly.
Darren then rebuilt the hive temporarily while he went to get the replacement. By the time he got back they had already started preparing to rebuild the honeycomb on the bottom of the frames. This was within an hour, our bees are always busy.
By Mark Hawkins
