Recent Blogs Posts

Just back in from another entertaining evening with Tiny Tim.
We had to move two colonies of Tim’s from a site of his to our new mating apiary at Minnowburn.
Tim picked me up at 7.30 and after a half hour drive we were at the site.
The colonies were blocked up and ratchet straps put on.
I commented that one colony had a lot of dopey looking bees hanging out the entrance which can indicate a surfeit of bees and impending swarm preparations.
TT had checked this one ...

I have a colony to which I gave a second brood box a fortnight ago which now has 14 frames of brood. I set it up yesterday as a cell raiser with the queen in the bottom box,topped by a queen excluder a super,then the top box with most of the brood. I gave the top box a frame with ten grafts and on checking today two had been started. The first set of grafts offered often has poor acceptance but I am up and running now 5 weeks earlier than I started last year.
I regrafted the 8 larvae which ...

One day I'll learn. I was being silly, my friend was inspecting his, generally, dopey bees while I was digging the allotment in a vain attempt to make it look less abandoned than it did this morning. Did I put a suit on when he asked for a second opinion? No I didn't. Unsuited I put my face right next the hive to take a closer look at the frame dangled for my view; wallop, straight to the throat. I now have two adam's apples.

One day I'll learn. *sigh*

Once again some fine upstanding pillars of the community answered the call and devoted a large part of their Sunday to their own community service order. What did they do to deserve this?!

The enormity of the task ahead is revealed by the continuing lack of action with the timber cut to make hive stands, the 15 polynucs still in their natural colour, and the promise of 48 National polyhive boxes and almost as many feeders, floors and roofs - once I can find the man with the warehouse ...

At the risk of incurring the wrath of the ghost of Rudolf Steiner and the entire anthroposcophy movement, I clipped seven queens yesterday evening.
I don't usually clip queens and last year I didn't have a single swarm but the swarming frenzy this year is making me nervous. There have been some in the Belfast area already - 4 that I know of. A guy from my bka lost a swarm 10 days ago and it ended up in his friend's chimney, - by coincidence very close to Ian Paisley's house. Can you imagine ...