A Day with Hive No 1

Steve and I decided to go through Hive One yesterday while the weather was good (for once!).
Our aims were to check that the girls were thriving after our wasp attacks of the previous weeks. We had also decided to give back a Super containing at least six frames of capped off honey as winter stores. This had come from our garden hive. As these bees at the lotty had come from a nucleaus created by our garden bees, this seemed synergystic!

As we started to go down through the hive, we realised quickly that the bees had done absolutely nothing with the top Super. No stores, very few bees, foundation not being worked at all.

But as we removed the Queen excluder and explored the brood box below it was thankfully a different story!

We were very pleased to find our Queen and find lots of capped and uncapped brood. There were plenty of honey and nectar stores ........altogether most satisfying!!

So now happy with the hives state, we were then able to replace our untouched Super with our one filled with honey and to most importantly add our Apiguard.

This is the early Autumn treatment as recommended by our regional bee inspector (Robert). This is the first varroa treatment which has to go in during mid August while the temperatures are still high enough. The next treatment is with Oxalic Acid at Yule and followed with Pyrethroid strips in Spring and maybe icing sugar in between. This is known as integrated pest management and is followed by responsible beekeepers in the UK.

In conclusion ....... a goodly day with the bees!