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Do you remember the heart shaped swarm I posted about earlier this summer? Its keeper, Mary Holt, was kind enough to send an update and it looks like the bees are safely ensconced in their new home in the English Cotswolds. Thought you’d enjoy these photos.

This first image of three freshly painted beehives is my favorite. I love the way the organic stuff on the right points to the hives on the left… and the way the building’s structure draws your eye toward the flowering bush in back. Lovingly managed chaos… the secret to every garden’s beauty.

(Click to enlarge.)

Mary says….
These are English W.B.C.’s, (invented at the turn of the last century by the Rev.William Broughton Carr) which form a double-skinned hive. The ‘National’ hive which you correctly located on Thorne’s website, will fit inside the WBC outer ‘lifts’. Unlike your crisp, dry-cold climate in the Colorado mountains, I live on a cold but damp exposed hillside, 750ft above sea-level, and felt the extra insulation of a double-skinned hive might help the bees come through winter safely. 

On a rare warm day, Mr. Crabtree came and we transferred the bees with their brood frames from his National hive to my own. The operation went very smoothly and the bees remained extremely calm throughout.

Mr. Crabtree unveiled

Towards the bee garden at Oatleyhill.

This last one’s a favorite too.