July 19th - Inspection

Poly Langstroth deep and medium
The brood chamber has 5 excellent deep frames with large patches of brood and 2 good frames of eggs, larvae & pollen the end frames are full of mostly capped stores. The medium chamber above (see picture) has been mostly drawn out apart from the end frames 2 each side which are still being worked on all be it slowly, these part drawn frames will be staggered and moved inwards on my next inspection as the colony size continues to increases. The central frames have a nice arc of capped honey across the top, 6 frames in all with a nice patch of sealed brood, plus more recently a patch of 3-4 day old larvae extending the brood area backwards across 3/4's of the frames on 4 of the frames.

Picture - Sealed brood within the green circle, to the right 2" more of larvae extending the brood nest area across the frame. (slightly darker yellow comb)

This colony is off to the heather at the end of the month provided the weather improves although the long range forecast for August is still likely to be unsettled.

June 30th - Almost taller than me

2010 Queen, the colony are showing no signs of wanting to swarm but since the last time I opened them up they have filled a super and capped it. So I've added another BS National chamber instead.



Super - full capped.
Super - full capped.
14x12 - half full of uncapped honey.
BS National - Added today (plastic foundation).
14x12 - 8 frames of brood, 2 frames of stores, 6 frames of the 8 brood frames are wall to wall with brood in all stages.

June 25th - Bee Sting and Drugs

Long story which I won't bore you with, but just to say I visited my hives yesterday just to get some fresh air after being stuck in doors for almost 2 weeks after my back op. I noticed a swarm had made a home in an old nuc I use for rubbish, I thought the entrance was blocked off with foam but its disappeared.

Today I went to transfer them into another nuc with frames and in the process got stung on the forehead, long story short they are still in the same nuc. On the way home I started to feel hot and sweaty, my ears were bright red and I could feel my forehead starting to swell, lips felt puffy and my whole body start feeling hot and sweaty. Fortunately I only live a few minutes away as by the time I got home I knew I was reacting really badly to being stung. Since my back op I've been on a cocktail of drugs, currently I'm still taking Dihydrocodeine, Etoricoxib and Paracetamol. I think the combination of drugs and the sting reacted badly. 10 minutes later my whole body was covered in blisters. (picture of my upper arm)

Each of them felt like a small burning sensation and sore. My suit was peppered with hundreds of stings sacs but I'm positive this reaction was only from the one sting. The wife got the piriton tablets out and got me bowl of cool water and a cloth to help cool me down again.

Despite some peoples thoughts of leather gauntlets I am so glad I was wearing them today. Two hours later thankfully I felt fine again. A sure fire way to remind yourself how nasty bee stings can be, more so if your body is recovering from major surgery and full of pain killers and anti-inflammatories.

May 28th Swarm

Paul a friend of mine gave me a small swarm from one of his colonies. They settled high up in a tree in his garden for two days before flying off. The next day they returned again and settled in another tree where he was able to collect them and put them in a box.

I decided to put them into the Polish mini hive I bought along with about 2 pints of 1:1 syrup, each frame is about half the size of a BS National so with the two brood chambers of 6 frames each its about the same as a 6 frame National nuc. The next time I will open them up will be some time in July or August.

May 15th

Last weekend I extracted 3 national supers, let it settle in a warm room for most of the week before skimming off the tiny bits of wax and air bubbles. Yesterday skimmed off the last few bits before stirring it thoroughly using an electric drill and then gently warming it up again in the airing cupboard over night.


Today I sterilized 60 jars before stirring the honey again thoroughly again and filling 53 whole jars with OSR honey.

Very Nice

May 5th - Exmoor

I went to see Pete, a good friend and fellow bee keeper I've had the pleasure of knowing for 3 years who lives on the edge of Exmoor. We spent the day touring some of his apiaries and he was kind enough to show me how to graft all be it from the passenger seat of his truck. 


After priming the cups with a small amount of royal jelly, he selected each larvae from the parent frame and carefully placed them on the royal jelly.

Both Clare and I fell in love with the local area who wouldn't when its field after field of OSR, hedgerows, woods, orchards, wild flower pastures, clover and of course Exmoor national park which is has thousands of acres of heather. If we win the lottery we will be house hunting the next day.

April 15th - OSR

Had some real fun today and scared the wife silly at the same time.


Earlier today I went to the apiary to double check on a colony ready for their move to OSR. Once the air temps started to fall we (wife and I) went to pick up the colony. I parked the car within 40 feet of where I had chosen to site them and roughly levelled up the hive.


Pic 1 - Opening the hive

As predicted as soon as I opened the entrance hundreds began pouring out like bullets covering my hat, veil and shoulders. At this point I decided it would be a good idea to retreat some distance and let them calm down.


Pic 2 - 10 minutes later

I still had plenty running around on my veil looking for a way to get in. Sorry, I'm trying to watch the bees on my veil and not look like some cross-eyed gormless nutter wondering around the edge of an OSR field after the sun had gone down.


Pic 3 - Another 10 minutes later

The front of the hive still looking very busy. Lots of bees fanning and the odd one trying to attack the camera after each flash. All in all a fun day, never laughed so much when so many bees are so desperate to sting me.