Hot, hot, hot

I paid the colony a visit yesterday and, even though I left it until late in the day, it was still scorching hot. About 30 degrees if the gauge in the car is to be believed.

The bees seem to be doing fine at the moment though the nectar flow has clearly slowed. During the peak times they managed to fill two supers in two weeks but in the last week or so have only half-drawn two brood frames. It does mean that I'm well set up for next year though as they have put away plenty of stores and drawn new comb that I can use to get them going after the winter lull.

I checked through the supers and the brood and everything seems fine. The amount of laying has dropped and there is not as much new brood to come out - a sign that the season is reaching its end. For the next few weeks I'll be doing various manipulations to get the bees off the supers and in to the main brood box so I can extract in August some time.

I'll also be replacing my queen in August but I'll be sorry to lose this one as she has done so well this year - even though she did give me a scare late last year.