I might get a pot or two of honey yet.
The swarm looks like it's going to be the colony to beat. Fabulous bees. I know they're only over 5 frames but in the context of Roger (Patterson)'s Queen workshop last weekend they're a no brainer. If I was an idiot I'd inspect without a suit let alone a smoker, if they live through winter they're everything I'd like to see from bees from a personal point of view. I 'd like to see some sign of VSH too, but maybe you can't have everything.
The other two colonies are getting on. One now has a new queen that we marked today. The other doesn't. We ran a virgin queen in a few weeks back and she's obviously not worked out. there are two fat queen cells on a donor frame from the swarm colony. If I'm honest I should combine this with one of the others, but another queen from that swarm is too good an opportunity to pass up.
The other colony also has a queen. This was the one that swarmed before I did the first inspection. We couldn't find her, but they're still mean and I'm glad they're not on the allotment. If things were slightly different I'd requeen this hive tomorrow.
I took my mentee around again today and thankfully this time we got to do some "standard" beekeeping compared to last time. Fair play to her, I've not managed to put her off yet and after 3 swarms collected so far we've promised her the next one.
All things considered it's capped off a good week. I'm not going to get to get much honey this year but I've learned a huge amount.
Bookmarks