31st May ~ In the garden

In the garden this afternoon

That's not my honey bee

It's body is too bumbly

A Bumble Bee, one of three which were all feeding on our Medlar tree today

That's my honey bee

But it's not very well

:-(

We think we can see a varroa mite in this photo

At our last hive inspection the varroa count was only about 4 or 5 

25th May 2013 ~ Second Inspection

Our Second Inspection

Today we made our second inspection and took photos of all the frames that had anything happening on them. As with last week there were just a few bees in the super but any significant numbers were in the middle cluster of the brood box

We have a week of some sunnier days, especially today which was also calm and the temperature about 18 degrees

I will add captions later by way of numbering these frame pictures but frames 

1,2,3 & 8,9,10 had nothing on them except for a little pollen

Frame 4A

Frame 4B

Looking for the queen

Two of our bees drinking from a plant saucer on our garden table

Honey!!!

A few drips oozed from this excess burr comb that we had cut off from frame 5

 The busy hive later in the afternoon

Day 9 ~ Sunday 19th May ~ Our First Inspection

We kept this inspection fairly brief as it is the first we have made on our own hive.

It has been about 10 months since we made a proper hive inspection at the association apiary so we felt a little rusty.

I will add more description when I have done more homework!

We have a very small colony but it seemed pretty busy.

Percy makes a start on the super

There was very little to see on any of the supers

Serious look at one bee!!

On to the brood box: There is a lot of burr comb between the middle frames

We hope the blue dot indicates the presence of the queen despite the last two inspections apparently drew a blank. There was, then, brood in all stages so it was assumed there was a laying queen. 

Not much to see here

Now that's more like it

 

The other side of the same frame

A close up

A great deal of concentration!!

Lots of capped brood and some drone cells
The queen is in the bottom right hand corner of this frame

Queen in the centre laying with brood larvae and capped cells 

Day Five ~ 15th May 2013

Well after a day of windy, gales and heavy rain yesterday with virtually no activity I popped up the garden this afternoon to see if there was anyone about!!!!!

It was humming, literally!!

All very busy and several with pollen laden legs. 

I hope they are happy here.

Just a selection of photos, no captions required.

Day Three ~ 13th May 2013

Well, a few brave souls in the chilly wind

Day Two ~ Calmer Morning

Just a few photos of our bees out and about.

We have found a few struggling outside with tatty wings and dying but there were also many flying and some bringing pollen back to the hive.

We are quietly optimistic :-)