Jon

We had thunder lightning and hail today but 20 hardy souls turned up for the first meeting.
13 of them signed up to join the Native Irish Bee society and most of the rest were already members.
Beekeeping activity was limited as even though the rain stopped it was only about 10c.
We split into two groups as we have 2 sites about 200 yards apart.
One colony had already filled a brood box with bees and brood and we gave it a second brood box of drawn comb underneath the existing box. the manoeuvre took about 5 seconds as I lifted the brood box up and one of the group members placed the box of comb underneath.

Yesterday I rescued a queen from a colony which had dwindled to about 100 bees and put her in a cage with a couple of attendants.
I took a frame of bees and brood from a strong colony and put it in a nuc with another one with stores - sandwiched between two insulated dummy boards.

Today we checked that the queen was still alive (she was) and I opened the tab so that the bees can release her by eating through the fondant plug.

The other group was transferring frames from a 14 by 12 brood with castellated spacers to a 14 by 12 without castellated spacers. This is a new colony we have just acquired for the group and it will be requeened if necessary.

Minimal activity, but at least we have made a start. I hope to start grafting in about a fortnight if that colony on double brood builds up enough to act as a cellraiser.