Sunday 18th July
Having relocated the last nuc just a mile and a half away this morning, I stood an empty one on the original site to catch any returning foragers.
I tapped on the roof late in the afternoon to see if any bees were inside and one did come out of the front entrance. I put an almost empty feeder in the roof space, just to give them something to live on for the time being and left it until evening, when all the flying had finished for the day.
I was relieved to find that there weren't many in there at all - not one in the nuc itself and just a few up in the feeder.
This is all that returned to the original site - just seven bees, and two of them are drones. I'm not inclined to drive all the way to the next village, just for the sake of taking seven bees back to their home again. However, I didn't want to leave them here to starve - a pretty rotten reward for their loyalty! I gave them all a good squirt with some sugar syrup and tossed them into the front of another hive. The guard bees there should hopefully welcome these sticky visitors for the night and maybe by tomorrow morning they'll have decided to stay there instead!
