We had a party today, it was scorching on the terrace, the bees were very happy. New students peered incredulously at us as we wandered about in full bee suits in the heat, hopefully they spotted the hives!
We did a full check and topped up the water fountain which was completely empty. When we put the apiguard a couple of weeks ago we had to space away the feeder from the nest to allow the bees free access to the granules. This meant it has been harder for them to find the syrup. After a week where no syrup was taken we put a syrup dipped stick from the nest up into the feeder and hey presto all this weeks syrup has gone! The bees number have really picked up and they have drawn out (or started to) all but 2 frames. We saw the queen, eggs, brood and growing stores. There were countless varroa on the board, as you can see us counting in the photo, so we know the apiguard is doing its job.
Hope you manage to get down to the centenary rooms on 22nd to do some local honey tasting. Joseph has brought 2 pots, Martin our bee consultant 3 pots, 1 from the Epsom BKA and a pot with honey on the comb. Lynsey has some from the Twickenham BKA so there ll be plenty to try, some runny, some set. Next year I hope we'll be sampling our own.
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