Jon

On St Pat's Day I put the remnants of a colony into an Apidea as there was only a couple of hundred bees left with the queen.
They have been living in the garden shed ever since.
I took the apidea up to my apiary at the allotment and took two frames of sealed brood plus adhering bees from my strongest colony. I shook in some more bees as well and added a frame of honey and another of drawn comb.
I put the queen in a roller cage and hung it between the two frames. The nuc is ...

Ok. I know it would read better if it were St Andrew's day update but today was a public holiday combined with a temperature of 14c so I got a chance to check quickly through a few colonies.

I was able to have a look at eleven in all with inspection time limited to 5-10 minutes in each case.
All had some brood and I saw ten of the queens including several of the ones I still have to mark. I will wait a few more weeks until I get a warmer day as there is no rush.
In one ...