Merging the Colonies (now on film)

This week we attempted to merge the two colonies - as the smaller colony is not going to survive for much longer on its own without a queen or new bees being created.

The problem is that a colony will defend their hive against bees from another hive - they can tell them apart by smell. Their queens scent is detectable - so we needed to allow the bees to mix for a while without them reaching and attacking each other.

Steve, Hannah and Gil met on Saturday afternoon (after the PuLSE Urban Harvest - see our facebook page for details) to discuss tactics, and then convened at the hives on Sunday morning - tools at the ready. First of all we used our swarm box to put the small hive into - and wrapped them in cloth.

We decided on using a follower board from the now empty hive to separate the two colonies within the main hive. We drilled holes in the board to allow the smells to mix and the bees to see each other, but blocked the gaps around the board so they wouldn't be able to get through.

The small colony was then lifted into the back of the main hive along with their comb, and they were sealed completely inside - with no egress - for three days. . .