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.