Quick Peek

As the air temperature was about 10'C and no wind I went to see the girls today. I lifted the roof off and could hear the gentle hum from inside. As this hive is a Dartington style hive I lifted off the crown board from the unused end of the hive to reveal the block of fondant which has hardly been touched which is great news and I put in about 150grams of a pollen patty. I quickly lifted the crown board from above the colony and could see about 100 bees on top of the frames. As they appear to be in good shape for now with plenty of stores to see them through I don't need to return again until the end of March or early April when hopefully the weather will be warmer and the colony will be expanding very quickly.

Feb 2010

First signs of life from the Dartington hive the other day, the air temps got upto 8'C which is still dam cold but there was very little wind. I watched several bees exit the hive and spiral upwards so I walked round the back and pressed my ear to the hive and gave it a tap and could hear a quick roar from within. Roll on the warmer weather so they can get out and forage some of the early spring pollen.

I'll warn you now this blog is going to become top bar heavy in content in a few months, I have 3 full sized hives waiting to be filled and a 6 bar nuc ready.

TBH Guide

Thank you to all of you who have emailed me about my Hive Guide and I am pleased to tell you I've written a new guide about Top Bar Hives

This year I am converting to using Top Bar Hives as I've built four full sized hives and two nuc's. I also made one for a friend and I'm looking forward to setting them up and starting a colony in them. As I'm currently off work with a bad back (honestly) I decided to write a simple guide on Top Bar Hives to help explain to all bee keepers there is no reason not to build your own hive and use it instead of paying unreasonable amounts on a brand new hive. Included in the guide is a section on how to become a bee keeper for less than £100.