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It would appear that I'm now the new education.... something (secretary? Member? Lord of the universe of) for our association. Education is my "thing" at the moment, I'm still a new beekeeper and the lack of access to our association for people like me has been a big part of why I'm now doing what I am. I now have another problem; what do I do for people who are several years down the line from where I am?

If I have any useful advice to dish out at this point it's that ...

So things chug along quite merrily. If I have a complaint about my bees it's that they love gumming things up. I've seen it noted that Hoffman frames attract Brace comb and mine is certainly no exception. Still, that aside things seem to be progressing nicely. The first super is being nicely drawn and starting to fill up. Possibly a little ahead of schedule I've added a second super and started to cycle drawn comb into the top box and foundation down below. We've got a huge stack of foundation ...

Finally, finally, finally. Making the most of the lovely day to finally get my hands in the hive. Although my eagerness to get the lid off the hive was somewhat tempered by one of the neighbouring plot holders coming over to introduce herself and let us know she's prone to anaphylaxis from bee stings.

It took all of 3 second once she made her way to the gates for the smoker to be lit and the suit to go on.

So let's get the numbers out of the way, right now there's: ...

The wait for a full inspection continues, I'm either in the wrong place at the right time or it's just that little too nippy to want to take frames out for a leisurely look around and attempt at marking HRH.

As I didn't treat with OA over the winter I stuck on an Apiguard tray a couple of weeks back thinking that despite it being a little cooler than the manual suggests that I'd still get a fair idea of how bad the mite levels are and knock a good few down. Monday evening we took ...

As I was asked if I was going to do one this year I thought I'd inflict it on the Scottish Beekeepers. I did [try and] keep a blog last year, but actually sitting down and writing about stuff is frequently far less interesting than actually doing it. I wont rehash last year's shenanigans but at time of writing, my little colony of bees appears to have come through winter very well so I am going to tentatively announce that my aim from last year's beekeeping has been achieved: I didn't kill my ...