Andy Bee-keeper

Andy has AT LAST got his bee-suit. This means he can now join me in the weekly bee inspection, thereby increasing the risk of sting by 100%.

The weather was looking a bit iffy, yesterday. Iffy and bloomin' cold, so we decided against opening the hive, waiting with fingers crossed, hoping there would be a window of better weather today.

And there was! So we donned our bee-suits and stepped into the garden looking like a pair of urban spacemen. We didn't need the smoker. The bees were happy and humming and in and out of the hive with mucho pollen including the most vibrant orangey-red I have ever seen. Lord knows where they are gathering that from, so I think a pollen chart might be in order to satisfy my ever-increasing bee curiosity.

Inside the hive, the bees had drawn out another 2 frames of stores. We've been giving them extra feed this week 1) because the weather has been very chilly 2) we are in the middle of the June gap and 3) it's good to help a new nucleus build themselves up, which they are doing very nicely, thank you.

We saw larva, eggs and baby bees. We saw Queen Mildred, waddling around, and being attended to by her retinue. We saw drones and capped brood, stores and pollen. We saw bees cleaning out cells in the middle frames ready for Queen M to do her egg laying thing again. Next week I reckon we'll be able to take out the dummy board and add the last frame of foundation and then we'll be keeping an eye open on progress to make sure we add a super at the right time.

Andy was especially pleased to have seen eggs. In the final week or so of our bee-keeping course, he was having trouble seeing the larva. I know what he means when he says you have to see something for yourself in order to know exactly what it is you are supposed to be looking for.

'Look!' I kept saying. 'There's some larvae.'
'Where?' said Andy.
'There! Those pearly white, curly 'C' shaped things,' said I.

It took Andy a while to spot some. It turned out they were a lot bigger than he was expecting them to be.
'You mean those big, fat maggot things?' said Andy.
'Yes, the big fat maggot things,' I said.
'Ooooh...I see!' said Andy. 'And the eggs?'
'Like little threads of cotton standing bolt upright in the bottom of the cell,' I said.

It took Andy a while to see what he wasn't expecting to see. But eventually he did! And so now we are two bee-keepers who have a gentle, if slightly insane grip on what we are supposed to be doing.

And now we are waiting for some varroa mesh to arrive in order to complete the top-bar hive.

So, any bees out there requiring a low maintenance des-res please apply to: Much Malarkey Manor. Available soon.