Tidying up

Weather: Cloudy, windy, threatening rain
Temperature: 20C
Stings: None
Wildlife: Frogs, parrots, woodpeckers. No squirrels.

Pretty much just a check-up today to see how the bees were doing. When I turned up I thought the bees must have swarmed as there were so few of them flying. Bugger, I thought. It's getting very late in the season to recover if that is the case.

Thankfully, it wasn't the case. It was very windy and cold and the bees were huddled in the bottom brood box and in the upper super and brood box. They are doing fine. I only had a quick look as the weather was changeable again and that makes them very grumpy. Plus, I didn't want them to get wet if it did start raining.

The super is now pretty much full of honey and almost all of it capped. Its pretty heavy. I'll clean up my porter bee escapes and start the process of clearing the bees from that maybe as soon as this weekend. I want them to start laying down stores in the brood frames and that is certainly starting to happen. Not much yet, but they are starting.

Note to self - make sure the bee escapes are the right way round so you don't trap the bees upstairs like you did last year. Gah. So, I'm fairly happy with them at the moment.

The work to clear the allotment is going well, too. I'm using the mattock to dig up the brambles and bigger clumps of grass and once they are completely clear I'll use a weed-suppressing fabric to keep the growth under control.