Un-Bee-Lievable Arrival at the RHS EcoHub

Last week an exciting moment took place at RHS: we welcomed our newest members - the bees! Flying into our EcoHub, the bees initially joined us in a Nuc hive, which is half the size of a regular hive. This was left on top of the new hive, so that the bees got used to their new environment.

The following morning The Bee Club, led by Miss Stone-Weyl, bee-suited up and moved the bees over to their new hive. The club took the frames out of the Nuc hive examining them one by one for bee larvae, food stores and most importantly the queen. Students had to make sure she was moved into the new hive or the bees would swarm and leave to go to look for her. To make the queen easy to identify,  she had been marked with a little yellow dot. The bees were then left for a week to settle, before being checked in on by the bee club on Tuesday 20th June. We are happy to report they are looking happy, healthy and have successfully found their hive's front door! 

It has been a hard spring for the bees this year as mites carrying a deadly virus spread and infected numerous hives. So at RHS we are absolutely delighted to still have been able to start our beekeeping season this year - and to report that we already have between 15,000-20,000 bees residing in our hive. 

Mr Gould, who has been supporting the project in the EcoHub, told us: “We are thrilled to introduce bees to our EcoHub. It is another step on our school’s journey to helping support wildlife thrive in the local community.”