Two's company

I collected our second colony of bees from the man who taught me beekeeping, Willy O'Byrne, earlier this week. The hive was placed at the other end of the hive stand and at right angles to the existing one to help prevent the bees from the two colonies from going to the wrong home. Willie, who's based in Moneystown only a few miles away, had kindly moved the bees to a location farther from us to ensure the bees were far enough away from their previous location that there would be no overlap in their flight paths, which could cause some of them to go back to their original location. We also put grass at the entrace of the new hive before opening the little door, to encourage the new bees to re-orient themselves as they started flying from their new location.

My two little lads kitted up in bee suits to get a very close look at what the bees were doing. We didn't open the hives as it was too cool and too soon after the move.

Later on during lunch, I noticed one of the bees was nosing around my plate. Good to see them flying, and a welcome change from all the unwelcome wasps!