Monday 4 March 2013

Bees in a Swift box

by Dick

Last year, right at the end of July, a swarm of bees occupied the top left box in my 9-box cabinet. The box was one of 5 occupied that year. This pair had failed, but they were still roosting every night, until the day the bees arrived.


The nestbox entrance is at the left end and the Swift nest platform is at the right hand end.

On warmer days recently we have been looking out for bees around the box, but there were none, so we guessed they had not survived the winter. On removing the front of the box I was confronted with a beautiful set of 6 honeycombs, and with many dead bees on the floor of the box.

This is the second time we have had bees occupying a Swift box, the last time was in a church where the bees survived the winter, so were removed to a hive, as the bell-ringers were getting stung!

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