2026 Cliffe Castle Bee Blog 3 – The bees are back!

On Friday 10 April Lee, Mick and I checked out Beedicca’s colony at our

apiary site (where we keep the ABKA bees). They were looking good

(see the photo below) and we knew it was time to plan to take them back to

Cliffe Castle.

Jonathan and I collected the bees from the ABKA Apiary yesterday

evening and after a night in the boot of my car, they returned to Cliffe

Castle this morning, Monday 13 April. Steve and I transferred them

from their winter poly nucleus box to the observation hive at 7.30am.

It was bitterly cold, but we found a sunny spot outside the museum to

make sure we could move the bees into their new home for the season.

We made sure that Beedicca was safely inside the hive on the frame on

which we found her and added another 8 frames one by one. Her

special scents (pheromones) send a signal to all the bees of the colony

that wherever she is now, is their new home.

Beedicca is laying on 5 frames of comb. The colony has enough food

and she has enough space on the comb to continue to lay eggs and

make the colony grow. We will leave them alone for a week, to settle in,

and go back on 27 April to see how they are doing.

If you visit the museum, you can check out the hive to see for yourself,

but please don’t tap on the glass. Bees are very sensitive to vibrations

and can easily get upset.

Linda