Between 2500 and 3000 bees were rescued from the Battle Station chimney on the 16th of October 2018. Battle Station is a listed building in East Sussex. These bees were taken to the Bee Hospital which is a blue natural softwood pine hive belonging to Dan, a Bee Removal Technician from Beegone, who is also a beekeeper.
The bee hospital already housed a bee colony, but the numbers were not great. These existing bees had been rescued from a listed building in the Cotswolds in April 2018. The Colony was about 15 years old. When the bees were rescued there was no queen and so a queen was ordered from a Beekeeper and (if you can believe this) sent via Royal Mail. The queen is delivered in a casing containing fondant. She is put in an inaccessible area of the hive for 7 days before she is introduced to the colony. After 7 days the casing containing the queen is placed in the hive. The colony will either accept her by licking and feeding her through the gaps in the casing or they will reject her by stinging and biting her. Thankfully, in this case they accepted her and they chewed through the fondant layer to release her.
The honeybees from Battle Station are introduced by placing them in the top layers of the hive with newspaper separating them from the existing colony. The bees chew through the newspaper to get to each other. During the process of chewing through the newspaper the 2 colonies become friends.
Since the two colonies have been integrated the weather has turned cold again after the brief warm spell. The bee hospital has been wrapped up to protect the honeybees from the cold. But upon checking them we are delighted to report that the numbers have increased and the queen is in the process of laying eggs.
Last year Dan harvested 29 jars of honey from the bees in the bee hospital. This year he is hoping for much more now that the colony has grown in strength and numbers.
Beegone® specialises in the safe, environmentally friendly, live removal and rehoming of honeybee swarms and colonies, from structures or naturally occurring cavities. We cover the entire UK and have a team of trained and dedicated technicians ready to serve you.
Our aim is to educate people and businesses on honeybee identification and how to deal with them. We remove feral honeybees from structures, relocate them and prevent them from returning.
HEAD OFFICE:
Hivegrove, Kings Court,
Burrows Lane, Gomshall,
Guildford, Surrey, GU5 9QE
Phone: 01225 285 084
Email: [email protected]
HEAD OFFICE:
HIVEGROVE, Kings Court,
Burrows Ln, Gomshall,
Guildford, Surrey, GU5 9QE
Phone: 0800 9551 999
Email: [email protected]