The Bees This Week

Paul checked out the bees again on Friday. One hive was left untouched as planned, while the new queen is being raised, but a full inspection was carried out on the second hive. The queen here has somehow lost her blue identification spot! This is a blue ink marker which is dabbed on gently; it’s a technique used amongst beekeepers to help make the queen easier to find and to record which year she was reared, but it’s pretty low tech and we are not sure where it went. Anyway, Paul was still able to find her and she is doing well, healthy and laying eggs. Even more excitingly, the bees have now one-third filled the second super (you'll remember that last week they had filled their first super). So that's really good going. They are still in swarming mood though and Paul had to remove another handful of new queen cups, but there were less drones than previously which is positive. If they continue trying to swarm an artificial swarm might have to be performed soon.