2018 Beverley Beekeepers Auction

Conflicting with Whitby Goth Weekend this year was Beverley Beekeepers' Annual Auction. No doubt this caused sleepless nights for many beekeepers in the East Riding as they deliberated whether to dust off the New Rocks and head for the coast or empty the back of the estate and head to Woodmansey in search of bees and woodware.

Jars, buckets, woodware, shiny things, fondant..

The Auction started at 11am on the Sunday morning, I rocked up at half past. The hall was noticeably fuller than previous years. As expected alongside the usual hives and Supers there was a huge range of equipment on offer, ranging from buckets of formic acid pads and sugar to microscopes and a cuddly toy.

Bucket of 10 Formic Acid Pads, went for a pound

Hard to imagine an apiary without one of these

Actually the bucket of Formic Acid went for £1, the cuddly Winnie the Pooh dressed as a bee and accompanied with a few large flowers went for £6. The acid is for treating Varroa, the Pooh bee and flowers are props for educating children about pollinators. I'm not sure what the Brunel SP20 Microscope went for but there was also a binocular microscope amongst the lots too.

Beekeeping isn't all banging nails and burning stuff

As usual there were a few shiny motorised extractors standing out against the boxes and wood. I bid on a couple of those but was unsuccessful so if I get a honey crop this year I'll be extracting with my trusty two frame manual extractor.

Motorised Extractor, it's gone to a new home.

One thing that caught my eye was the Honey Twin-Spin. A two frame electric extractor which appears to have been designed by some guy was hugely into fifties sci-fi and probably saw flying saucers in his sleep. It's a two frame radial extractor but unlike every other extractor I've ever seen holds the frames almost horizontal. It's made by Brinsea Products who are still around but nowadays focus on poultry rearing.A quick Google finds the extractor  mentioned in an old Kent Beekeepers Association Newsletter. The writer comments on how efficiently it extracted as well as being particularly easy to clean too. It didn't generate much interest and there was only myself and another chap bidding on it, he got it for £16. It's an odd looking and bulky thing but £16 for a motorised extractor is quite a steal.

Flash Gordon's Honey Extractor

In previous years there's usually been a lot of Nucs on sale, probably because most beekeepers get free ones with their first colonies and later it's probably one of the first things they build for themselves. I've made four myself, and still have a couple of others knocking about. This year the Nuc contingent was limited to a group of five brightly coloured wooden Nucs and a couple of Poly Nucs with built in feeders. Perhaps people are keeping their spare Nucs for making splits later in the year.

How come that bear is in so many photos? :-o

A couple of Poly Nucs

Of course the main draw was the bees. Winter losses over 2017/2018 have been seriously high across the UK, Europe, USA and Canada, figures I've heard bandied about have been up to 90% for some. This means there's going to be a lot of beekeepers looking to replace stocks and conversely far less bees available for sale.

Bees for sale

There were 12 colonies for sale this year. 8 of them were 5 frame Poly Nucs with July 2017 Queens ready to be hived.They went for £240-250 each. From the descriptions I think these nucs actually contained bigger colonies than my surviving hives at the moment. I've long since realised that trying to predict bidding is impossible so I wasn't hugely surprised when two full sized colonies in National Brood boxes complete with floor and roofs containing 6 and 7 frames of brood respectively went for £230 and £240 each. That's less than the smaller colonies in the Nucs and basically includes a usable hive. A Poly National hive with 6 frames of brood and four spare empty Supers also went for £240 and the last colony another Poly National but with a half filled Super and 3 spare empty Supers went for £250. The last colony I bought at a previous auction was £150 and one year in York I saw 2 Nucs going for £50 each, the prices this year probably reflected just how heavy the recent Winter losses have been.

These bees couldn't wait to get to work

It was really cold outside but a lot of people braved it for the bee sales. Before proceedings went back inside a gazebo and a 6x4' trailer also went under the hammer. Whilst probably not the first thing most people think of a Gazebo would've been really useful for me over Winter when I was working on hive floors in the snow. I've also had the weather change after painting hive parts and hd rain completely wash off the wet paint in the past.

The right place for a gazebo or trailer

Back in the warmth the hall was noticeably emptier. Probably as a lot of people had come specifically to buy bees -have I mentioned those Winter losses?.. I guess a few will also be going to the York Beekeepers' Association Auction on May 12th. After the bees have sold and the crowd has thinned a little is a good time for bagging a few bargains. A few people got honey buckets with lids at four for a pound, mesh floors went for a pound each too. I picked up a solid wooden floor for £7, that'll be going under a spare hive at the apiary in case a passing swarm feels like moving in. They're also handy to have around when you're moving full Supers and extracting.

Perfect for Asda

There's usually something unusual at these auctions and this time the oddest thing was probably a wooden box on wheels. Inside it on one side there were a couple of net curtain wires attached to the frame to hold things in place. The were also six swarm boxes on offer but they didn't meet their reserve.The swarm boxes are lightweight boxes the size of a 5 frame nuc with straps, a close fitting sliding lid and mesh areas for ventilation. When you're moving bees it's important to keep them cool. Being based in a city I've not had to travel far to collect a swarm yet so I just bring a Nuc when I go to collect them. If I was travelling further I'd probably think about one of these ventilated boxes.

Ratchet Straps, Uncapping Tray and Fondation

As the Auction progressed I picked up a box of beekeeping books and a medium size bee suit for a fiver, quite a few people are interested in seeing my bees so I got that for visitors. There was some steelware in the form of a couple of uncapping trays, that always gets interest. A large honey warming cabinet went for £30, useful things, this one looked like it could take a couple of buckets at a time. At the moment I have some jars of liquid honey that's granulated so they'll need a spell in my warming cabinet before they sell.

Honey Warming Cabinet

Something which didn't sell but would save someone a lot of labour was a motorised Honey Creamer. From the outside it looked a lot like an extractor but inside instead of a cage for frames there was a little propeller near the tank floor. You load it up with liquid honey, add some existing creamed honey from th previous year, turn it on then go do something else whilst it mixes. At the moment I use a strirring device that attaches to a drill and cream the honey in 9 litre buckets. It's still fairly hard work and takes a long time mix it consistently.

Honey Creamer

Stainless Steel Settling Tank with Filters

The second to last lot was a heavy little stack of glass rectangles. It turned out they were glass quits, basically a glass Crown Board. Each was in two halves and each half made from two panes of glass joined together. They allow a beekeeper to see where the bees are in the hive without fully opening the colony. I'm not sure why these are in halves but it might be to do with weight and strength, it'll also mean not having to open up the full hive at once which should reduce flying bees. Nobody was interested in them although polycarbonate quilts had had some interest earlier in the day, so I them up for £2, making them £1 each. I'll see how they are to use -if I like them I may be popping up the road to Jack's Glass for some more. The last item was a very tall stainless steel Settling Tank with built in filters. I was interested in that but so was everybody else so it was soon bid out of my intended budget.

Section Racks

Towards the end I managed to pick up a pair of Section Racks with metal spacers. There was the usual boxes of jars and foundation. I didn't need any foundation this year having traded in a load of wax for foundation last year. I did pick up 72 1/2lb jars with lids for £12 and 72 1lb jars with lids for 17. Not the most interesting purchases of the year but jars are quite an overhead for beekeepers so any chance to save on them is welcome.

Solid hive floor and a little reading material

 When I got home with my little haul the first thing to do was scorch everything - well okay not the books, that'd've gone pretty badly, but the floor, section racks, their metal spacers and even the smoker, whilst it doesn't come into contact with bees it comes into contact with gloves that probably have.

Snelgrove Board, front and back views

I had bid on a couple of Snellgrove Boards but didn't win, however the chap from Green Man Honey who had won them was kind enough to sell me one after the auction. They're made from two thicknesses of ply with cutaways at the exits on one side, an unusual way to do it but will certainly make for a strong board. When I scorched it the glue holding the mesh liquefied so I scraped it off, burnt it off the mesh then stapled the mesh back in place.

This Smoker reminds me of The Klangers.

It was a fairly busy day, with three different auctioneers taking the gavel. The impact of the Winter losses on attendance was pretty obvious. As usual the auction is a handy place for beginners to quickly and cheaply stock up on kit. As well as the sales mentioned above National Hives assembled and painted, complete with two supers were going for £40-£50 each.

Save the Date: Beverley Beekeepers 2018 Auction

There's been no posts for a while but I'm still busy with the bees and a few other things over here. One day I shall keeping free is Sunday 29th April as it's the Beverley Beekeepers Annual Auction. It's where I got my first bee colony and a large amount of my kit. Worth a visit for old new beekeepers. Last year I went to pick up a few little bits and pieces and came away ten Commercial Brood Boxes :) Check out www.beverleybeekeepers.co.uk for more info.

2018 Auction!

2017 Beverley Beekeepers Auction

Sunday 30th April was the Beverley Beekeepers 2017 Annual Auction! I got my first bee colony there in 2011 and it's continued to prove a really useful source of kit. Last year I sold an empty Nuc there, this year I had a few more things to sell and decided to drop them off the previous evening when submissions were being accepted. I was supposed to be meeting a couple of people in town that evening but I seem to be perpetually running late so they probably weren't too surprised when it happened again. When I got there half the hall was already occupied with items for auction the next day. I droped off my stuff and went on my merry way, met people patiently waiting in the pub, hit up a club as you do, went home and the next day I grabbed my chequebook and headed back to Woodmansey. This year I was specifically looking for a few Supers, a couple of Queen Excluders and some spare Hive Tools.

Auction this way!

I wandered into the hall as a WBC hive went under the hammer for £25. It wasn't long before a lot of three hive tools came up so I placed a few bids but stopped when they got to a fiver. The hall was pretty full with all.the seats taken and people standing at the end and either side of the stage. An Observation Hive got a lot on interest going for £100, there always seems to be a couple of these at auctions and they seem to sell well. I'm not sure if the buyers actually use them or keep them as curios.

One of two Display Hives that went under the hammer

This is a straw Skep. Bee Hive from the Olde Worlde.
Flipped over they make great laundry baskets.

As well as a few Observation Hives there always seems to be a skep at these auctions. This time was no exception and it went for £34. As usual there was a lot of National Hives and Hive parts. I noticed there were more WBC Hives than last year.

A trio of complete National Hives

Heather Honey Press

As well as the usual Hives there were a few curious items here and there.A strange looking contraption that looked like some sort of vice turned out to be a Heather Honey Press and went for £36. Outside a collection of canvas, metal poles and netting proved to be a bee enclosure for beekeeping demonstrations.

My Lots! 37x330ml Bottles, 600 Queen Cups, Conical Honey Filter and Frame Sides

Eventually we got to the bits I'd dropped off. There was 37 330ml beer bottles er mead bottles I mean. I've decided to stick to 500ml and 750ml bottles for my home brewing. They're good quality dark brown glass and someone got a bargain bagging them for a fiver. I also had two lots of 300 plastic Queen Cups I've had sat on eBay for about a year, they went for £2 per lot so think I probably broken even on those. I also sold a conical honey filter that I got at a previous action and don't think I've ever actually used. My last lot for sale was a box of mixed shallow frame sides. I've decided to standardise on Manley frame sides for my supers and these were 20 self spacing and two wide sides.

National Supers, Foundation and Crownboards.

 

Ten colonies, all sold.

As usual in the middle of the auction there was a break and everyone headed outside for the live colonies being sold. There were ten colonies in all. I think there was a 5 frame Nuc, an 8 frame Poly Nuc, seven single brood National Hives and one double brood National. The single brood colonies went for about £150 I think. The double brood which was described as 10 1/2 frames of brood, 20 frames of bees and a Super fetched £250. Lot of bees there. If I'd bought it I'd probably split it into two colonies pretty quickly.

Double Brood and a Super.
Bet somebody had a slow drive home.

Whilst the bees were selling I had a reconnoitre of the auction floor. There was a tool box with a few bits including three hives tools so I noted the number of that lot and another lot of three hive tools. I spotted a strange little plastic box for one lot which was actually a box of prepared Honey Bee microscope slides, I'd been toying with the idea of making some of these myself and decided to bid on them.

In a box containing quite a strange mix of things including a smoker and soap moulds I found a very innovative entrance reducer/wasp guard. I've never seen one like it before. It has two sides which can be open and closed and a mouse guard over one side. Clever piece of work by somebody.

Innovative Entrance Reducer

As bidding resumed a few flat slotted Queen Excluders sold then the framed excluders I was waiting for came up. Turns out a lot of people wanted those and I didn't win them either. The toolbox with the hive tools sold and I finally got the other lot of three hive tools for a tenner, got to wonder where those bidders were when the first set of three went for a fiver earlier in the day but such is the unpredictable nature of auctions.

Motorised Honey Extractor

The Motorised Extractor went for £310. The seller was someone who'd recently ceased beekeeping and was getting rid of their kit. An Easi-Steam came up but didn't meet it's reserve. I have one of these myself and think it's the bees knees. A Honey Settling Tank got a lot on interest too.

A Honey Settling Tank and a Heated Capping Knife

I bid on some metal frame runners but lost out so shall be ordering some online eventually. Frame runners make it far easier to manage frames in the Brood Box than having the lugs sat on the wooden rebates, they also reduce the chances of a bee getting squished when you put a frame back in the box. Most of my Brood Boxes have metal runners that came with some Easi-Pet Cedar Supers but some still have plastic runners which will melt when I scorch them.

Another mystery lot was a set of 6 small wood and metal cages. Evidently for some sort of thymol treatment for varroa. I'm not entirely sure how they work but I'd guess a thymol treatment possibly goes in the cage then it sits on top of the colony. A couple of people bid on those so presumably they knew a bit more about them.

Mystery objects

I won the microscope slides for £6. They're from Brunel Microscopes Ltd who are still selling the same set for slightly less, but I saved on poastage. Looking at their site they have a few other interesting slides on offer and may get a bit of custom from me.

I'd noticed a few brood boxes at the far end of the hall but hadn't paid them any attention, when we reached them I was surprised to hear them described as Commercial and joined the bidding. Most people still prefer the smaller National size hive so there weren't many people bidding on them. I think only myself and two others were interested in them. I got a lot of three for £15 and stood on for the next batch of three.

Commercial Brood Boxes complete with 12 frames each.

So that was six Commercial Brood Boxes at a fiver apiece. Later we got to some more Commercial Brood Boxes each with a compliment of 12 frames in each. There were two of us bidding on them. I got two lots of two boxes and frames for £5 per lot whilst the other chap got three lots of the same. They were varying in build quality, from some with perfect box joints on the corners to a couple with a few screws in the corners. A few had rectangular abrasions were presumably the previous owner's brand had been sanded off or something. After scorching, scraping, a little attention to a couple and a lick of paint they'll be ready for use again.

Boxes of jars proved popular as ever. Not the most interesting things to bid on but everyone needs them to sell a honey crop. After being a bit disappointed with Compak South Ltd shipping me a couple of broken jars last year then not responding to contacts or making any effort at redress I decided to pick some up here for less and got two boxes of 72 jars each. Saving 30p per jar on the pound jars and a bit more on the smaller jars. It sounds a bit trivial but really adds up when you start selling a few.

Free Worker Bee with a stack of empty Commercial Brood Boxes

Amongst the very last lots were two bundles of ten Commercial brood frames. I picked them up for £3 each. One set appears to be unused with the wedge still in place and the others had been cleaned up. I'll still be sterilising them all anyway to be safe.

Two sets of ten Commercial Deep Frames, £3 a set.

I noticed a few differences his year compared to previous years I've attended. Usually there's a lot of used Nucs being sold but not this year, possibly linked to my other observation that most of the bees sold were in full size colonies rather than Nucs this time. There were also less lots of random bits of kit lumped together than previously.

I've started to notice a few patterns to auctions. The bidding is busier towards the start when there's more bidders so it's worth submitting items as early as possible to get as good a sale price as you can. Conversely as a buyer you can get some bargains if you hang about to the end as people have spent up or gone to settle up their bills before the queue gets too big. The two sets of Commercial Frames I picked up were the second and third to last lots and definitely worth waiting around for.

At the end of the day I spent £98 and came away with ten Commercial Brood Boxes, 71 Commercial Frames, three Hive Tools, 144 jars and a set Microscope Slides. The items I sold off went for £16 which after the 10% auction fee comes in at £14.40. Loading the car took a while as I'd not planned to buy anything bulky and had 4 plastic crates still sat in the back, Took me a couple of tries to get everything in but I got it all home in the end.

Loading the car was tricky, hadn't planned to buy much.

 

Auction this Sunday

The Beverley Beekeepers Annual Auction is this Sunday, 30th April 2017, at Woodmansey Village Hall.

Go there!

As well as being an important date for local beekeepers it tends to draw people from further afield too. Last year I went to get some bits and bobs and came away with a complete National Hive full of bees as it was too much of a bargain to pass up.

2016 Beverley Beekeepers' Annual Auction

30th of April is Reunification Day in Vietnam, closer to home this year it was also the Beverley Beekeepers Association Annual Auction. Previously the auction has taken place on the last Sunday in April, this year it was on the last Saturday. As per usual it was in Woodmansey Village Hall, last time I was there it was for a couple of friends' wedding reception -there was more alcohol and less bee stuff that time.

In a major departure from my usual Saturday routine I got up bright and early. Normally I don't see Saturday mornings, glancing out of the window I was met by a warm sunny day and and the sight of a suspiciously well fed pigeon picking grass seeds from my very recently reseeded lawn. After a feeding the cats, checking Facebook, checking Instagram and getting a coffee I decided this year I'd try flogging a couple of nucs. I've got three National Nucs from previous bee purchases and as I use Commercial brood boxes they're very little use to me. One's on top of an outbuilding as a bait hive but the only things attracted to it seems to be spiders the size of your hand, I decided to leave it up there for now. The other two Nucs I scorched and scraped. I found that the ply of one was delaminating so it probably wasn't really sellable so decided to leave it. Finally armed with my chequebook and the one good, spider free, Nuc I set of for Woodmansey. I didn't need anything in particular this year but was hoping to pick up a travel screen as I now have bees in two locations.

When I rolled up there was a row of brand new National Hives outside the Hall and in the field behind the bee colonies were lined up behind a rope. Inside the hall there was 8 rows of wares ranging from bee hives to boilers.

Three of the many National Hives on offer

Feeders, a Wax Melter, Hives, Petunias, you name it it was probably there.

My Nuc was the last item submitted for selling. If I'd been serious about selling some kit rather than just clearing a little shed space I'd've arrived sooner to get my items placed earlier in the auction schedule when there's more people bidding. .

First thing I looked at was the little selection of beekeeping books. One that was pointed out to me was a nondescript looking book with a handwritten replacement cover. Turns out it  was a 1952 first edition of The Pollen Loads of the Honeybee by Dorothy Hodges.

A colour plate from The Pollen Loads of the Honeybee

Pollen chart

The book had some amazing illustrations and colour plates, at the back a chart of pollen colours which rather than having been printed into the book was made up of small rectangles of each colour glued onto the page. It didn't meet it's reserve so it's original owner still has it, and I think it may actually be part of the Beverley Beekeepers' Association Library. If you have £100 burning a hole in your pocket there's some later reprints of the book on Amazon at the moment.

Unlike previous years all the hives were National, previously there's been WBC, Smith and Commercial hives and components when I've been  but this year it looks like people have settled on a standard. I'd've liked to have seen some Commercial size Nucs myself, think I'll be making my own this summer. Last year if I remember rightly it was almost all National except for one Commercial Brood Box. Something I did notice was more Polystyrene than previously. Looking on the forums it looks like most still prefer to use wood but there's some suggestion Polystyrene may be better for over wintering due to it's insulating properties -although nobody seems to be mentioning that poly hives tend to have thicker sides than their wood counterparts.

Unused, painted, complete Poly Hive

Poly Nucs with built in feeders

Three display hives all sold, perfect for anyone who wants a bee colony in their living room. Boxes of Apiguard dated 2018 were going for £16 a pop, saving buyers about a fiver and postage costs. There always seems to be a honey creamer at these auctions, this time it sold for £9 -looked like a Thorn one.

A couple of the Display Hives that were on offer

The majority of kit for sale this year was new rather than used

Random bits

There's usually a few boxes of random used bits, whilst there were some this year there were also quite a few lots of mixed brand new kit like a pair of gauntlets and two hive tools packaged together. There was a range of extractors, some powered some manual and a cage to convert an existing extractor for radial to tangenital. One buyer picked up a plastic 4 frame Extractor for £40.

Extractors, powered or manual

Some bright spark seems to have started painting old smokers, should make them a little harder to lose in long grass for those with outapiaries. There were also a lot of new smokers and a few smoker bellows. I bid on a couple of bellows but didn't win, eventually I bagged a red painted mini smoker for 50p. Just the thing when you only need to open one hive, that it looks like a rocket from a fifties sci-fi comic is just a bonus.

Smokers of all ages, some painted.
I picked up the little red one.

There were a few boilers dotted about the place. Not something you'd initially associate with beekeeping but useful things. I picked one up a few years ago intending to use it to clean frames but now use it for making gallons of syrup, other things people use them for include wax extraction and mead making. I think the Burco went for £8.

Tea or coffee, by the gallon.

The strangest thing at the auction was probably a Servis Extraspin 503. This is a device for drying clothes by spinning them at high speeds. I did wonder what it was doing there but there was helpful note attached advising that it makes a very good heather honey extractor. It looked new to my untrained eye and there was a lot of competition for it and eventually it sold for £54.

Great for drying clothing or extracting Heather Honey

Moving outside there were, I think, 19 colonies in total. Mostly they were in full size brood boxes with a only a few in 5 or 6 frame Nucs, towards the end there were some 12 frame double poly nucs. The bee prices were unpredictable as ever. A 5 frame Nuc with a 2015 Queen went for £130 another for £110. At this point it was getting a little nippy so I popped back inside to get my hoody, when I came back there a populated National brood box being auctioned and the bidding was at £90. I hadn't really planned to buy any bees on the day and hadn't actually heard the details of the colony but as it seemed to be going so cheaply I thought I'd put in a couple of bids. I got them for £110 which is less than any of the three Nucs I've bought previously. Later turned out what I'd got for my money was 10 frames of bees and 6 frames of brood with a 2015 Queen. Bargain.

Bees for sale, about 5 workers for a penny.

In previous years people have stood up to the rope but this time the bees were a little feisty so most folk were stood back, except one chap seemed happy to let a bee sit on his forehead till it lost interest. I think allthe bees sold with the double Nucs fetching £160 apiece. Shortly after the bee auction it started raining heavily, which is possibly why the bees were a little unhappy.

Back inside about 20 boxes of jars and lids were quickly auctioned off. I picked up a big sack of 65mm jar lids on the off chance they'd fit some jars I have -they didn't so they'll probably go on eBay at some point. Noteable bargains, other than the bees, were a guy from Goole who got a honey warming cabinet made from a converted fridge for £1 and someone else bagging 50 DN4 frames for £25. I got my Travel Screen for £1. There were a few plants for sale but they didn't generate much interest, a few trays of Petunia's failed to sell and I got 12 pots of Chives for £2. I unsuccessfully bid on some Snelgrove type boards but lost out, think there was two lots of two. I'll have to make some more this summer.

£5 went a long way

There were a few bags of bee accessories and I picked up the last one for a fiver. It contained two rapid feeders, a hive tool, two porter escapes, a queen clip, queen cage and blue queen marking pen. I'll probably not use the porter escapes (does anyone?) but the pen will be used for a couple of unmarked Queens from last year and the rest I've already got a use for.

One Handed Queen Catcher

For £3 I got a "One Handed Queen Catcher". This is a clever  device from Korean company Yasaeng Beeking Supplies. Who hasn't heard of them, right? Anyway in case the name didn't give it away, it's a device for catching a Queen bee and marking her. Usually you use a Queen clip to catch her, then transfer her to a marking cage, the transfer is a little risky and can lead to a Queen flapping away. TBH all queen catchers are one handed really so perhaps something got lost in translation, anyway having the two devices combined should make things easier and reduce lost Queens -yes I've had one fly off during transfer from clip to cage..


Other gubbins I picked up were some small over trousers -they were thrown in with the smoker I bought, an icing sugar dusting screen, a Thornes English Feeder and a stainless steel uncapping tray which had previously belonged to Preston Honey going by the sign thrown in with it.

I also picked up a copy of Maurice Marterlinck's The Life of the Bee translated by Alfred Sutro and published by George Allen & Unwin. It was originally penned in 1901, I'm not sure what year this copy was published but the last date listed was 1912 and a previous owner, one W.D. Holmes, wrote their name in it in 1941. Beekeeping has changed a lot since 1901, the Varroa Mite wasn't here, neither was American Foul Brood, Tracheal Mite hadn't raised it's head, our bees were black, farming practices and land management was totally different too but I think it should be an interesting read.

The blackened travel screen in the middle was just what I was looking for

As well as buying the Travel Screen I'd been hoping for it turned out the colony I bought also had an identical one included with the hive so one to keep at home and one for the outapiary too, once I've given them a good clean and sterilised them. I drove the bees straight to the out apiary, according to Google maps the guy they were bought from lives 2 miles as the bee flies from my apiary. I don't want them flying back to him so I've left them with some grass blocking the hive entrance. My plan was to remove it in three days time but by Monday evening they'ed done it themselves anyway and foragers were returning to the right place.