Search results

No def not inspecting. Only went into them today to quickly remove varroa strips.

Lovely and warm today. Checked up on a few colonies. Lots of nectar coming in and a variety of pollen colours. Spotted eggs in a Nuc that I thought may be queenless and a newly introduced queen in another colony seems to have started laying. Supers in my main apiary (on an arable farm) filling...

A challenging year continues! Inspected all my colonies - bit of a mixed bag. 2 strong colonies making swarm prep (they had attempted this back in May as well and had both requeened). Had hoped that swarming was over for the year! Another colony has a drone layer - went through them 3 times but...

Inspected 2 colonies this evening whilst still very warm. All looking ok. Fresh nectar in coming into the supers and a lot of pollen coming in.

Checked 7 colonies. All very busy in the lovely warm weather. Stores level was variable, bramble is now in flower which should help. 2 colonies had single charged QC in the middle of frames so have left them to do what they want.

Inspected 9 colonies. All generally ok but munching through stores. Was warmer and sunnier than forecast - all were very busy and well behaved. Lots of pollen coming in, bright yellow, orange and red and some fresh nectar present as well. Marked two new queens.

Had to check on a few colonies even though it was quite cool and windy. The bees were not happy. Reduced Queen cells down to one in a colony whose Queen I had removed last week. Quite a few cells hidden in corners! Added another brood body to a poly Nuc which needed some more space. Supered...

There are still large patches of OSR in bloom here so am guessing that is what they are on.

20+ degrees here in the Lothians. Inspected 2 colonies. A Nuc from a split 3 weeks ago. New queen had emerged and has started laying. Found and marked her. Unfortunately I also found a couple of Queen cups with eggs! Have taken these down and will be back in next weekend to see what is going on...

I had this situation today. Inspected a colony that had gone from a Nuc to a full size hive a couple of weeks ago. Found multiple swarm cells.

Inspected 8 colonies. Some more full supers almost ready to take off. A few extracted supers that were put back on the hives last week now being filled again. Large patches of OSR still in flower. New queens from splits all starting to lay. Glad they were able to get out and get mated. One...

Removed supers from 4 colonies. 2 completely cleared, other two still had a few dozen bees in them. 3/4 supers were 17-18% moisture content however 1 super with all frames fully capped is at 19%. Will be returning the supers tomorrow morning.

Inspected 6 colonies. Added more supers to a couple. Some fields of rape now going over but others in full bloom. Very strong nectar flow. Moved a Nuc into a full hive. They had expanded very quickly. One colony not storing a great deal of nectar. Just bumbling along. Queen seems to be laying...

Inspected all but 2 of my colonies (the other 2 hopefully have newly hatched queens out getting mated!). Added additional supers to 2 and reduced QCs in two that were split last week. The nectar is pouring in to some colonies very rapidly.

Inspected a colony that I hadn’t checked last week due to the cool weather. Several sealed Queen cells but eggs present. Spotted the Queen after going through them twice - she had slimmed down quite a bit and was obviously getting ready to go when the weather improved! Put her in a Nuc and...

Inspected 2 Nucs. 1 coming along nicely at a steady rate. The other was very populous and had a number of charged Queen cells. Also inspected two other colonies at another apiary. One quietly bumbling along and the other very busy and storing nectar in their super. There was a couple of Queen...

Went into 2 colonies that I took Nucs from last week. Reduced both down to 1 QC. 11 degrees but no wind. Bees were very tolerant.

Went into 2 colonies that I took Nucs from last week. Reduced both down to 1 QC. 11 degrees but no wind. Bees were very tolerant.

I am going to have to do the same tomorrow - the forecast looks slightly better!

Added some more 1:1 syrup to 2 nucs that I have temporarily relocated to my garden. I don’t get much of a chance to sit and watch my colonies as they are in other apiaries. Nice to observe them for longer periods!