r/beekeepingUK

Hello! I am in Derbyshire, UK.

Yesterday around 6pm I noticed a swarm of bees gathering around my chimney. I called a few beekeepers, who told me that it was too high for them to collect (two storey house), but I should light a fire to discourage them from settling.

The problem is that chimney is above an oil aga, which is temperamental at the best of times. I was up until 2am, but unable to light the aga. 😭 I am trying again this morning, but I am not encouraged.

How do I get those poor bees out of my chimney? I understand I still have a window of hope to discourage them before they settle, but given my failure in lighting an aga I am struggling for what to do.

Thank you!

So I have two hives currently, one was a well established hive, the other was a recent swarm catch.

The first hive (well established) recently swarmed (quite unexpectedly) my neighbour told me that she’d seen it when I got home from work. I checked the hive 6 queen charged cells, none in great positions. So left them to do their thing.

Second hive has a small swarm that was caught recently (12 days ago) the queen isn’t laying yet, but the hive seem happy enough (drawing comb, coming back with pollen)

Now my concern is we are two weeks in and there seems to be a lot of drone in the first hive and no sign of a queen (all queen cells empty, no new eggs, no larvae of any size, no capped brood, and I’ve not seen the queen) the second hive doesn’t appear to be laying at all.

My question is what should I do?