Belated Update

I didn't post last week because my husband did the weekly inspection with his mother. I think we may have persuaded her to take up beekeeping if she can find a friend to do it with her... Liam reported that everything seemed OK, a few half super frames were drawn out and he moved them along a bit to encourage the bees to keep up the good work.

We both then did an inspection on Monday taking advantage of a (very) brief lull in the rain. I couldnt believe how drowsy the bees were. It was not until we had inspected the 5th brood frame that they seemed to realise anything was going on. It was very strange and almost too calm.

I managed to spot the Queen first for the first time (normally Liam manages this - after excitedly spotting about 4 drones or "potential" Queens...) and also managed to get the camera totally covered in Propolis. On the plus side, eggs, sealed and unsealed brood were very much in evidence although definitely fewer eggs than on previous checks.

There was some more activity in the Super with 4 "half" frames now drawn out (rather pathetically shown on photo). Again, we moved them further out leaving new, undrawn frames above the heat of the brood nest to soften. We still have not put the Queen excluder on as very few bees (never mind the Queen) seem to show the slightest interest in going up there!