I did the first proper inspection of the year today, checking all the hives in my garden. All were lovely and strong, plenty of bees and brood, but one was a bit low on stores, so I will have to keep my eye on that one. I moved the overwintered nucs into hives for them … Continue reading Start of a new season
An Inspector (or 5!) came calling…
I had a visit from the National Bee Unit today, two bee inspectors and 3 auditors (why are there always more bean counters?). The auditors were checking that the bee inspectors carried out their work as per ISO standard, and that they were using and filling in the correct paperwork. The National Bee Unit (NBU) … Continue reading An Inspector (or 5!) came calling…
New Queen, New Palace
I moved the nucleus colony with my new breeder queen into a full-sized hive today, it was too hot to wear a bee suit or jacket, so I wore just a hat and face veil. I'm pleased to say that even though my smoker was lit, and on standby, I did not have to use … Continue reading New Queen, New Palace
New Breeder Queen
I had a phone call last week, from Marco Melo of Api-Bees in Kent, offering me a new breeder queen, with a colony of bees in a poly nuc. I was very happy to accept Marco's offer, and we arranged a time for me to collect the nuc from Marco's home in Kent. I tied … Continue reading New Breeder Queen
Wet Supers & Jars of Honey
I went around 9 hives today, carrying out inspections and placing wet supers back on the hives for the bees to clean, and hopefully refill with honey. A wet super is the term used for a super full of frames that have had the honey extracted from them, and have remnants of the honey still … Continue reading Wet Supers & Jars of Honey
Another Busy Few Days
I've had a couple of busy days again, nipping round all my apiaries to put clearer boards on hives so that I could remove some honey supers. I took supers off from two sites today, and put the clearer boards on at a third. I will be taking the supers off from the third site … Continue reading Another Busy Few Days
Introducing Queens
Whenever a new queen is introduced to an existing colony, there is always a chance your worker bees will not accept her, and the result of this could be the death of your new queen - no matter which method of introduction you use. The main things you need to be sure of when introducing … Continue reading Introducing Queens
Mixed news in the garden apiary
Another hot and sunny day today here in Dorset, what better weather to be messing about in a bee suit moving heavy hives around - said with tongue firmly in cheek. I inspected the 11 colonies in my garden apiary this morning, with mixed results. Some of the new virgin queen introduced to nucs have … Continue reading Mixed news in the garden apiary