Attendees:
Peter, Helen, Julie, Mark, Richard L., Anne, Shirley, Richard B. and young Sam.
There was lots of looking hopefully upwards to the sky for the promised better weather to arrive as we assembled at the apiary.
The weather was cool, damp and breezy and it was touch and go whether we should go in to the hives. A few bees were flying so we decided to make a start and see how we got on.
We started with Hive 1 and the new beekeepers each had a go at inspecting the frames. There was a good healthy brood pattern throughout the main brood box and no signs of queen cells. There was also no sign of the queen, which was a pity otherwise we could have trapped her in the main brood box (there is a shallow box being used for brood underneath the deep box). However the bees were getting grumpier by the minute so we did not go through the shallow brood box. An extra super with foundation was put on top as the bees were spilling out onto the crown board looking for something to do.
Next we opened up Hive2, again to check for swarm cells, but the bees by this time were in quite a temper at having been disturbed on a cool Sunday afternoon and so we decided to call it a day. These were given a brood box to draw foundation last time but they have not obliged so far.
The bees ushered us off the premises in no uncertain terms and sadly were being stingy right over to the cars. The picnic was abandoned as Julie suffered a sting on the eyelid and Helen had to have a bee removed from her hair. Julie has since assured us that thankfully the sting didn’t cause too bad a reaction.
It was during this scene of mayhem that Matthew and Lulu (the landlords) happened to appear and tried to engage in a conversation about works to the apiary site.
Work is to start very soon so there might be some disruption to our planned schedule. So look our for updates here and by email.
Jobs to do next time:-
Hive 1 – Check for queen cells. Confine queen to deep brood box if possible and move shallow brood box to hive3
Hive 2 – Check for queen cells. Check
Hive 3 – Replace the 2 shallow brood frames in the deep brood box. If possible use the shallow brood from hive 1 to take these shallow frames and boost the population
Hive 4 – Check for new queen, ideally laying – sealed queen cells seen 2 weeks ago
This is where hive numbers get shaky. Hives now have numbers on them but the hive notes don’t necessarily match!
Hive 5 (the one next to the wall and shed). – Check for queen cells. May need super. 7th May frames were removed to make a nuc.
Hive 6 (the furthest from the gate). Check for new queen, ideally laying. 7th May queen was removed to make a nuc.
Nuc – Check for new queen, ideally laying.
Sorry no actual photos from the day but here’s one taken on a sunnier day:-
