Saturday, 16 July 2011

Bee Update

Its been a while since I updated the bee news so here goes - forgot camera again, but now we have made a check list so it may get better!!
Home Hive is picking up brilliantly- have not seen a queen but she's there with lots of stores- I think this hive should build up beautifully now to over winter. There is a super on the hive with a couple of frames being used but will probably leave these stores for the bees unless the forage is fantastic in the next few weeks.
Waxwings Apiary is looking good- 3 hives now doing well.
WW 1 now has 2 supers , 1 almost full of capped stores and the bees thriving. However by the end of the last inspection the bees did seem fussy- these have been good natured bees so far so we are wondering if anything is not right here. Perhaps giving them a new super and removing the full one might be a good idea, so next time we may try that and see how they go.
WW 2, again building up beautifully- the brood box full of brood in all stages and moved up into the super on about 4 frames.
WW 3 is the last hive to be moved on site and I was concerned this was a small nucleus, but again they have been expanding and are using all but the last sides of the end frames. There won't be honey from these bees this year but I'm hoping they will be strong enough to go into over wintering preparation without worry.
The forage at the moment is good- the limes about finished but the smell of the Sweet Chestnut has been almost overpowering on site sometimes recently - way too early;  however there is still plenty of Rosebay Willow Herb and Brambles around so will not worry about forage for a couple of weeks yet!

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