First of all - time to kit up. There's nothing at all glamorous about a bee keeping suit, but it's suit up or be stung - so best to make the best of it - here I am happy to be suited and booted. Yes the second least glamorous thing about bee keeping is Wellie boots, preferably not black as the bees tend to go for black clothing - being confused with a honey thieving bear is not something I fancied so I went for purple Wellies. Just to be on the safe side.
As soon as we got the roofs off the hives it was clear the hives were full of thriving bees - there was honeycomb being built out of the crown board as the bees searched for more space and they'd even tried to build brood cells between the frames - sadly we pulled these apart as we opened the hives.
So on with the job in hand - to take out old brood frames that might be harbouring disease and the bees worst enemy - the varroa mite, and to replace them with fresh new frames of foundation wax.
So out with the old.....
And then shake the bees into the new brood box
Some of them took a while to settle into the new hive .....
Which left me with a few minutes whilst they calmed down to take a few pictures of a newly hatching baby bee....
What a lovely ending to a busy day...
No comments:
Post a Comment