How to revive an abandoned beehive.

When Jade purchased his new home, he discovered a beehive in the undergrowth of the garden, so he decided to embrace the opportunity to become a beekeeper.

The first task was to clean up the long-neglected hive by replacing the rotting frames and making sure it colony was generally in good health.

We will never really know what the history of this hive was, but it appears it once contained a colony that died out. The old hive material was probably first destroyed by Small Hive Beetle and then attacked by Wax Moth, before attracting a new swarm.

Fortunately, the combs in the brood-box were in reasonable enough condition to revive by cutting out and placing in new frames. The alternative would have been to shake all the bees into new equipment and treat them like a swarm; however, this would have been highly disruptive and set the colony back many months.