Hi everyone,
I have got new neighbours in my garden, but they are currently living in my fertilizer bin!
I want to give them a proper home, so I bought the Flow Hive 2+. Now, the problem is how to get them in the brood box?
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Hello and welcome!
If youāre feeling confident, you can cut the comb and rubber band it into the frames of your brood box. If youāve never done that before you might want to enlist the help of a local beekeeper.
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Hi & welcome to the forum. My video shows a similar situation.
In this case I used a frame of brood from a different colony. That makes the job much easier than trying to rubber band the combs into empty frames, which I suppose you could do after they are free of beesā¦
Iām not sure if this next video is any more informative.
Just in case you didnāt get enough info from the other videos, hereās another one, while Iām in the mood for sharing my videos.
cheers
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Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I will try it when my brood box gets delivered.
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Hi & youāre welcome. What part of the world is the Belmont that you live in. You might like to add that to you profile info. It helps people to know when giving advice. I generally look, but I didnāt this morning.
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wow, How do you know I live in Belmont? Thank you for reminding me. Iāll add it to my profile.
Do I need to buy this to protect them against AFB, EFB ? FeedBee For Sale - Bee Food - Shop Online | Bee2Bee
I am worried they may suffer from the diseases. This morning, I saw one bee crawling on the ground around the fertilizer bin and unable to fly, I tried to feed her some sugar water but eventually, she died in my handā¦ 
Hi Zephyr, itās the Belmont bit you need to fix. For example: Belmont UK, or Belmont West Australia. That lets us know what the season is for your bees when asking a question. Even in the US, itās helpful to give the state, because Florida has a different climate to Washington State for example.
That bee probably died from overwork, which is what most bees die of after only about 7 weeks. This is illustrated in my favorite learning video, āCity of the Beesā on Youtube. It needs to be watched several times in order to take in & appreciate bee culture.
AFB or EFB affects the brood, not the bees. The B standing for brood. F is the foul smell. A&E indicates the type. A is American, E is European, which has nothing to do with the continent that the disease was first discovered,ā¦ apparently.
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Thank you for more information and Iāve just fixed the location.
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I donāt know what happened, I came back home after work and saw many of them dead around the entrance of the bin. What can I do?
I would suspect neighbor has been spraying flowering plants with insecticide. Even more so if you can see some bees moving erratically, almost as if they are drunk.
You canāt really do anything. If they were already in a hive, you could try feeding them, so that they wouldnāt go foraging, but you should only use an in hive feeder, and they donāt make those for binsā¦
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This morning, I tried feeding them with some honey. Now, I am back from work. They look ok. Maybe, as you said because of insecticideā¦
You should not feed them honey unless it is from the same hive or at least same apiary. Too much risk of disease transmission, especially AFB.
If you want to feed them, you should used a internal feeder with (refined white) sugar water in a 1:1 to 2:1 ratio. Since this is not a managed colony (yet) you should just leave them and focus on getting your equipment set up.
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I completely agree with @chau06, which is why I said that if you are going to feed, you should only use an in hive feeder. No external feeding, and certainly never use honey. Sorry I didnāt make that clear!
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Thank you very much for your assistance, and I hope they can hold on until my equipment arrives.
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Iām pretty sure that your bees will hold on until your equipment arrives. My thinking is that weāre in the start of spring & the bees swarmed because they are optimistic on their chances of rebuilding without any assistance from us. I would be inclined to not open the lid until you are ready to do the transfer, on account that Iām wondering if the dead bees were a result of the lid being opened & closed. Alternatively some comb might have dislodged, killing some bees in the process.
If the bin is in the sun, I would suggest providing some shade, just in case the lid got hot in the sun which could heat & soften the comb, which could cause it to collapse.
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naberwise i would say make an announcement on your suburbs facebook group if thare is one saying you have bees and to spread the word thrugh outr the suburb that incestaside fungiside kills bees