Bees in Need — A Compost Bin Rescue 🗑️➡️🏰 

📞 A Call for Help
One afternoon, we were contacted by a lady who lives just a few minutes up the road. Bees had taken up residence in her compost bin!

At first, we thought it might be a swarm — but on closer inspection, we realised it was actually a colony that had already built comb. A brave choice of home… but not exactly the safest.

📦 A Temporary Home
We returned with a nuc box (a small hive used for housing little colonies) and gently transferred the bees inside. The colony was very small, with very few stores and late in the season. To make matters trickier, we weren’t even sure if they were still queenright.

On their own, they were unlikely to survive the winter.

👑 Enter Buzzingham Palace
Luckily, we had just the place: Buzzingham Palace our colonie. The plan was to unite the compost-bin bees with them, giving them the strength-in-numbers they needed to make it through.

Luke built a little ramp up to the entrance, and we carefully shook the nuc bees out. To smooth introductions, we gave them a light spray of diluted sugar water as they approached the entrance.

This not only masked their scent, it also meant they arrived with “a little gift” of sweetness to share — making the palace residents far more likely to welcome them in.

💡 Did you know?
Bees recognise colony members by smell. When two colonies are united, they can sometimes fight if the scents don’t match. Tricks like newspaper unites or sugar-water sprays help mix their scents and reduce aggression. If newcomers also arrive carrying nectar or syrup, they’re treated more like friends than foes.

🎶 Success!
We checked back the next day and were thrilled to find the plan had worked. The rescued bees had been welcomed inside, and the hive was humming away together as one.

To help them along, we fed them with 1:1 sugar water so there’d be plenty of food to share while they got settled.

🐝 Little Beekeeper’s Notes

• Nuc box = a small hive (short for “nucleus colony”), used for housing small groups of bees.
  
  

• Queenright = a colony with a healthy, laying queen.
  
  

• Uniting colonies = combining two colonies to increase strength, usually with a method to reduce fighting.
  
  

🌼 What’s Next?
With their new home in Buzzingham Palace and plenty of food, the rescued compost-bin bees now have the best chance of surviving the winter.

A happy ending for bees in need — and another reminder of how much joy there is in helping these incredible creatures. 💛🐝