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Well, those Magnificant Seven small and perfectly formed (Amm-looking) colonies were still alive this afternoon. The 3.5% oxalic acid dihydrate in 1:1 syrup (w/v) was dispensed according to the usual 5ml per seam rule, although some were occupying a small part of their seam so were spared the full 5ml. It was baltic (that isn't any kind of reference to Finland by the way) and I think that my hands suffered more than the bees did, though several did point their stings in the air at me just to let ...

It's been a while! That queen displaced in early July to a nuc box found her way back to the cell raising colony after the first round of queens had been raised. How?! She was mated three quarters of an hour's drive away so shouldn't have known the site of the cell raising colony. The nuc box she'd been put in was about three feet to the side and behind the main colony. After the failure of that second round of queens I re-arranged the boxes to create the queen-right arrangement of Wilkinson and Brown, ...

Its not so difficult, this grafting lark. On Sunday an enthusiastic bunch of East of Scotland Beekeepers, mostly beginners, gathered at the association apiary to see what's happening. Having managed to find the long-sought queen in our big double brood colony (thanks Susan) we went over to grafting mode. The old queen was banished to a small box at the side. We went and prepared bits and pieces while the bees adjusted to their loss.

Here is a frame from the breeder colony with ...

Two leaps forward at the association apiary today. I had need of a queen for one of the failed polynucs so fetched one from an Apidea and introduced it in a Butler cage. The Apidea had comb at all angles so I took that to bits in the process of finding the queen. The feeder unit was a convenient place for a spare slab of sealed brood. Anyway, job done and another protected queen cell took her place.

The second milestone? A media interview at the apiary. Was anyone watching Scottish ...

Phase 1 is over - the Awards for All grant (bless 'em!) is spent, we have bees and equipment, and now we need to settle in and start using the site as hoped. We will have a meeting at the site in 9 days, and so there is quite a bit to do. Probably have an official opening a little later in the summer when we will make a splash in the media.

A high point today was a visit to another site several miles from the association apiary near Dundee where we have some splits and Apideas coming ...