The 13 Light Sussex babies went to their new home this morning.
Got up just before 7 to let the chicks out to run around and flap their wings, stuff their faces, etc. A couple of hours later, I caught each Sussex and popped them into the Saavic Dog crate. I had thought I would need a box as well, but atually there was still plenty of travelling space in the crate even with all 13 in. We then took them to their new home.
Once we arrived at R's allotment, they were popped into their new coop, and we went off to feed our own chickens and to do some simple bee business. I had to rescue the spare hive floor which had lain, abandoned, next to the hive since the Incident over a week ago. The bees didn't react. I then took the varroa tray out of the hive, to bring home so we can examine it. Again, the bees just ignored me. We came back to see if the chicks were ready to come out. They were actually happily exploring their coop, so we left R to it.
At home, the remaining babies didn't seem to notice that anyone had disappeared. I guess they have quit a large area to roam around in anyway, so they may not realise until they go to bed tonight. If they realise then, even!
We're possibly going to take them down to our allotment tomorrow, weather permitting. Part of me wants to keep them here longer so I can handle them more (in case we do decide to keep some of them for breeding); but I think they wil have a whale of a time on the allotment. There's plenty of grass there for them, and lots of new things to investigate. If they were staying here, we'd have to think about giving them some fresh ground to explore anyway, which means that they'd have some ground earmarked for the Big Girls.
So, the current plan is to take them tomorrow and, while they are getting accustomed to their new house, we'll do a bee inspection. Two birds, one stone.
