2026 Cliffe Castle Bee Blog 17

Anthony and I checked the colony this morning (31 August – Bank

Holiday Monday), but sadly found no eggs, nor a resident queen. The

bees were still calm and busy with their own tasks, so that made things

easier.

Because they have collected so much nectar to process into honey,

whilst there was no brood in the nest, the hive was getting very heavy to

carry down and back upstairs. So, we removed a couple of capped

frames today and put in some foundation in their place. It’s far too late to

expect them to draw out comb from the foundation at this time of year,

but it will make moving the hive next week, when the bees will be

heading to our apiary site to overwinter, so much easier. The frames

taken off today, and three similar frames taken off over the summer, will

be winter food stores for the colony.

Because the colony is without a queen, it would not survive the winter

nor have a supply of new bees to carry out all the tasks needed in the

spring. Luckily, we have a small, queen-right colony at the apiary that we

will unite with the Cliffe Castle bees, so that they go into winter with a

fighting chance of survival.

We will put the Cliffe Castle bees and some of their food frames into a

wooden hive box at the apiary. We will put a few sheets of newspaper on

top of the box and add the small, queen-right, colony in another wooden

hive box on top of the newspaper. This gives both sets of bees a chance

to become familiar with the scent of the other, as they nibble through the

paper and prevents them fighting. Within a week, they should be

mingling happily, and we can remove the top hive box so that they can

be together in a smaller space for the winter.

Hopefully, I will have some photos to share about their progress.

Thank you for your interest in the Cliffe Castle colony. It’s been another

“odd” year, but onwards and upwards toward spring 2027!

Linda