It's been a tense few weeks of being patient and preparing ourselves for failure.
After Janet's visit at the end of July it was great to have the distraction of a week salmon fishing in Scotland. The bees were left to do what the birds and the bees do and hopefully re queen by our return.
We escaped for a lunch break with the bees on Friday 9 August, Janet dashed up to meet us, having experienced her own war against nature; wasps who are making a nuisance of themselves and bees robbing honey from her other bee hives. We lit the smoker and confidently bathed the bees in a gentle plume, however, things soon got a bit uncomfortable. Bees were bumping our veils and John's gloves were being hammered by bee stings, fortunately none finding their way through. We puffed in plenty of smoke to continue our inspection and though we couldn't spot a queen there was evidence of brood. Verdict: Hive 1 either has no queen or an 'angry bitch' quotes Janet. Hive 2 was a little calmer with plenty of brood and pollen. It's a waiting game.
Two weeks later and John and I decide to brave our own independent inspection. We have decided our purpose: to check for brood, hopefully spot a queen, replace a brood box which is split, add dummy boards at each end for winter warmth and insert entrance blocks so the bees can defend themselves better from wasps.
We set off in Hive 1 ready to cut and run if we are ambushed. However, the bees seem relatively un-phased by our presence - surely this must be a good sign? Slowly John lifts each frame while I scribe what he sees. Every so often we think we have spotted the queen but then accept we've been fooled by a drone (male) bee. We see plenty of brood, larvae, honey capped and uncapped and an exciting moment watching a newly hatched bee emerge from a cell.
In Hive 2 the future is looking even brighter and the top supers feel quite heavy. Hopefully we haven't blundered about too much while replacing the split brood box where the queen is most likely being protected by her worker bees.
Despite our 'schoolboy errors' we're feeling quite upbeat and very deserving of a cup of tea and a chocolate beetroot bun!
Bee fact 1: A smoker should be used sparingly, smoke doesn't calm the bees, when bees smell smoke their natural instinct is to prepare to flee. In the wild smoke would only mean one thing…. Fire! They immediately start to gorge themselves with honey. If they find they have to leave their nest and relocate to somewhere safer they will then have sufficient reserves to tide them over until their new nest is located and set up.
