Ping pong

Weather: Hot and cloudy
Temperature: 22C
Stings: None

A frustrating visit yesterday. I'm gradually clearing the weeds and long grass from my plot to make it easier to get at the bees and so I can put in some plants from which they can forage.Plus I want a prepared area for the hives to make the inspection/manipulation much easier. However, that work is taking a while as I don't have that much time to devote to it and its pretty over-grown.

The job yesterday was grubbing up the roots of some very old brambles with a mattock. What made it more frustrating was that I was working in the flight path the bees were taking back to the hive. So every few seconds I had bees bouncing off me. Some got very annoyed and I had to keep walking away to avoid getting stung. Plus the weather was humid and getting increasingly overcast - a situation that I've long known can make the bees a bit testy.

After a while I gave up and got on with having a look through the hive. They are doing fine. I was worried that I might have to feed them given the bad weather of late but they look like they'll be okay. In the supers I put on last week they are really socking away the nectar. As far as I can gauge the bad weather has delayed everything, flowering and colony growth, by a week or two this year.

They'll soon have lots more bees to help with the nectar collection as a check in the main brood box showed that they are on the verge of a population explosion. Covered brood was everywhere. I'm debating what to do about that. I need them to draw some comb for next year so might put a brood box on to give them some room. I'll need to do it next week though as they are going to be cramped without that extra space.

Thinking it through I realise that I do not want to be in the position I was last year with precious little in terms of stores for them going into winter. So, a brood box would be better. I'll check what frames I've got and see what I need.

Catching up

Weather: Cloudy, threatening rain
Temperature: 16C
Stings: None

The weather has continued changeable so I've been popping in over the last couple of weeks and really not had a good chance to check that they are okay. Generally I think they are. Numbers are up, they are starting to store nectar in the old brood frames and there is plenty of brood. There are lots of big daft drones around too.

Now all the bees from the old frames have emerged there is no good reason for keeping the larger frames on. Some have a small amount of stores in but most are pretty much empty. Better, I think, to swap them for a super. Something I'll do next week. The peak flow is supposed to hit at the end of this month and it'd be good to be ready for that. The older frames need sorting too. Some are too dark and old to use again but some are newer and can be readied for next year.