Trog

Yesterday was a lovely day. The sun was shining, there was little wind and the bees were all over the willow flowers. Gorse was in flower nearby and many of them would certainly have been there, too. All four colonies were flying well.

So, why did I not dive in straight away for the first spring inspection? Answer: because I didn't need to! The weather's been pretty poor so far this spring and is due to be dreadful for the next few days. Why demoralise the bees on the first decent day for ages? Did they really need to be spending valuable energy and resources tidying up after me and perhaps having to remove chilled brood? After such a dreadful winter, did they need the stress of their home being taken apart? No!

We swapped floors quickly and quietly a couple of weeks ago and the debris went off in the post to be checked. The mouseguards came off, too, so the girls could get inside quickly with their heavy loads without an obstacle course to overcome. They've been kept topped up with candy and the two nucs had been given frames of stores from a colony that died of natural causes early in the winter, but with minimal disturbance when we did so.

So I watched them bringing in pollen and noted greater numbers of flying bees, implying that there were now sufficient housebees to look after the brood, releasing more foragers to go out. Maybe by now there were even some new foragers. I watched for signs of robbing and double-checked outside the entrances once the bees had stopped flying for the day. Today I'll pop out and see how the candy's doing (it's over the feed holes in the crown boards so easy to check without losing heat from the hive), and maybe think about syrup.

And if the sun should return after the Easter Holidays, and the wind drop, and the bees be in a good mood ... I'll take a look inside and see if my assumptions were correct!