1st inspection/day2

It was the second part of our inspection last night.  We removed the Varroa board to see what we could find.  Its a bit different from the first time.  Much cleaner and as you can see from the lines of wax dust, the bees are working their way outwards.


Unfortunately we found 4 x Varroa this time.  We treated the bees to a Icing sugar dusting (recommended) this obviously worked as the mites dropped off.  Hopefully there won't be any/as many next week. 

1st inspection and no stings!!!!!!

We set the time, got tooled up and went down to the bottom of the garden prepared.  Ben removed the lid and feeder and I removed the crown board, I turned the board over to have a look and was amazed at the amount of bees on the other side.  Suprisingly I was calm.  Ben lifted the frames one by one to check for grubs, the queen, drawn comb and honey... it was all there.  In just one very productive week our little bees had gone mad refurbishing their new home.  The first picture is one of our frames which was comb free last week.

The second is one of the frames our bees came on.  On close inspection you can see the grubs.





This last picture is one of our frames again, last week it was empty and now its full of honeycomb..

not a lot

Not a lot going on really, our next big day will be Inspection on Sunday.  Then, we take the lid off and check the frames, see if they have been ok, breeding, making honey and generally have no nasties.

They seem to be good little ladies though, Hubs even mowed the lawn right around them last night and they weren't bothered at all.  He didn't wear his suit either. Good job they have a nice temperament, I have visions of him running around the garden with a cloud of bees chasing him :)

Another day

Its been a couple of days now so we decided to take the Varroa tray/board out and have a look.  Now it might look like a mess to some but we thought it was fascinating.  You can see lines where each of the frames are above and it also shows that our babies haved started on the new frames we gave them.  Whats best of all... No Varroa mites!! 

Seeing the different colours of pollen is amazing, we got our colour chart out and oilseed rape is definately one of them. 

Walking, flying or what

No, the novelty has still not worn off (don't think it will).

Its a lovely sunny day but very windy and watching our little friends returning from their days foraging is really amuzing. Good job we paid extra for the landing board!

Some strange behaviour today (or is it?) the guys are flying out and on return they just about make it to the landing board when the just drop to the ground. Its as if they are exhausted?!

There also appears to be some fierce defending of the colony, with the attack of the first intruder happening as I type. No idea what it is but the bees are attacking it.

There are some odd ones with deformed wings, that obviously cannot fly. Need to look that up really. Fingers crossed its not bad.

Although "they" say not to have a look for a week, we couldnt resist taking the lid off the hive and seeing if the feeder was being used. Happily it was! phew! at least we know we are doing that bit right.

The real day 1

They are in and getting used to their new surroundings.

Apparently our bees are from Buckfast stock, they are very calm and quiet.

We both got suited, booted and gloved up ready to transfer them into their new home. Expecting the worst (thousands of them flying allover the place) they were quite the opposite, some came for a sniff then flew away but apart from that there were no drama's.

Hive now closed, we both lay on the lawn for 30 mins just watching them taking mental images of the hive and surroundings so that they would be able to find it again when they come back.

Thats it now for 7 days, we dont touch them. However I will still be spending time at the bottom of my garden watching our new babies do their stuff.


Oh yeah... no stings yet.

Day 1

Its been a long time coming but finally here. Tonight we collect our bees. Yes bees! I have always loved watching bees, listening to their gentle buzz as they carry on their foraging. Having moved to our new house with a large garden the decision was made to keep bees.

The gear was bought, suits, wellies, very thick gloves, hive/s etc. even did a course but still no bees. We were aware that there was a decline but didnt realise just how hard it was getting a colony.

Well tonight it is, I've got my books out, just going over everything. Want to get it right.

Will keep you posted.

Chrysalis