Last night I tried again to rescue some of Martha’s abandoned bees. There was a fist sized knot at the entrance to the nuc so I put a piece of cardboard over the front of the nuc and carried it to the hive. I then set it facing the front of the hive.
I went out an hour later and the clump of bees was gone – into the permanent hive, I hope. I brought the mostly empty nuc (there are half a dozen adventurous girls inside the nuc) back to the Martha’s original location. There are still some very mad bees guarding the old location. I set the nuc down and I hope the girls will settle down and take shelter for the night.
It rained like crazy tonight and any bee that did not find shelter has to be dead. I will move the nuc one last time from the old location to the hive and anybody who wants to stay behind is lost.
