Sometimes a swarm will land in a strange place and needs to be moved.
Griffin had a chance to move a colony from an old trunk to his own hive.
Griffin's Dad just couldn't resist helping him light the smoker.
They were not sure if the bees would be upset when the trunk was popped open.
This is the big moment. They were hoping it would be a great colony and the comb wouldn't all fall into the trunk when it was finally opened.
Griffin gave the bees a puff of smoke and then peeked at the bees.
The comb was not neatly hung and some broke.
Griffen used a small metal pan as a prop to
hold the trunk open while he removed the first
pieces.The bit of blue you see is a bag of cat
litter product used to keep litter boxes dry.
It had been stored in the trunk by the owner.
Actually it seems to have helped the colony by
keeping the naturally accumulation of
moisture down.
The first piece of comb he cut out was quite large. In the background you can see the frames with rubber bands ready for Griffin to slide this comb into.
First he laid the comb on the
prepared frames to measure and
cut it to size. Then he slipped
the comb between the rubberbands
and lowered the frames into his
hive. He repeated this tasks
several times saving the brood, pollen and honey as much as possible. Excess honey comb that couln't be rescued was save to feed to the bees above the brood box.
Here is Griffin with the new hive of bees. He left it sitting on the trunk so that the foraging bees would come back to it. The key hole which the bees had been using as an entrance was placed facing the opposite way.
