Today, Lesley, Paul and I went up to South Milford to rehouse the feral colony into a new home. The plan was - move the colony to one side; put new floor and clean 14x12 brood box in original position; transfer the frames of bees into the new brood box. Simples!

They were much lighter than we had anticipated having gorged through lots of stores in the 14x12 frames.

We tried hard to find her, but the queen was elusive despite having several frames of eggs, larvae and sealed brood.

There was still quite a few bees in the old wild comb that we shook out onto a sheet we had paced down. Some of them were a little reluctant to leave their comb but we did finally manage to get them all out with the help of a little smoke.

For the bees we had to shake out of the old wild comb, we gave them a plank to walk up so they didn't get trapped in the grass.
Simples!