It was been checking time again yesterday and of the three queen cups I found last week, one has a grub in it. Looks like we need to consider doing an artificial swarm for real this time. The first super we put on is now in the process of being capped off. The honey is almost ready. I’m leaving it for the girls to completely cap off and then, Alison gets to do what she’s been looking forward to since we started on the Bee Keeping course, extracting her own honey!

On Saturday I went to check on the girls again. In the seven days since my last check, they’ve been busy. How busy? Well, last week I gave them a pair of brand new super frames to fill up the super. They had 6 already (or was it 7? I must go and count next time I see them!) and they had just started to draw out the comb. Well, 7 days later, we not only have a complete set of super frames, fully drawn out, but the whole lot is just about full (on both sides!

Ted Hooper has died at the age of 91. He was most famous for the Bee Keeping book Guide To Bees And Honey. Wikipedia link to Ted: Wikipedia

On Saturday, Peter came over because we (Alison and I) thought we had noticed a few queen cells in the hive. Drastic action could have been required if this was the case with an artificial swarm being uppermost on the list. As it turned out, we were wrong and what we had seen was a number of drone cells, not queen cells. Ah well, at least we know now! While inside the hive, we found the queen - and she was marked, with a red dot.

On Sunday (14th March) I went to check on the bees. Hefting the hive was a tad tricky as they were all out and about flying around and generally being bees. The weather had taken a bit of a warm turn (relative to recent months that is) and they took advantage. A closer inspection showed a good few had been “hopping” over the hedge to a crocus ‘plantation’ not 10 feet from the hive and were covered in shocking yellow pollen.

I hefted the hive the other evening - checking for the remaining supplies - it’s still heavy, so the girls should be fine for a while yet. Unfortunately, when I peeked in through the mouse guard, there was a pile of dead bees. Not good. There are still lots of live ones, clustering on the combs to stay warm (and alive!) so that’s good. It’s just a shame that winter kills off so many of them.

Well, the snows are here and the temperatures have dropped dramatically. The bees are settled in for winter. Hopefully they will make it through to next year (only eight days away!) and be ready to start hunting and gathering pollen, nectar and all the other stuff that they seem to like so much. We only had them for a brief period at the end of 2009, we got them in late August/Early September but so far they seem to have been fine.

Well, it has happened - granted, a few weeks ago - but we have bees. Peter, our mentor was as good as his word and he supplied us with a hive of bees. They were moved by us from a location outside Leeds, West Yorkshire, to our own location. I got stung twice - once on the arm and once on the end of my nose! That certainly makes your eyes water, I can tell you!

Tomorrow night (Tuesday 18th August 2009), Alison and I are off out to a secret location near where we live to colect our very first honey bee swarm. Our Mentor, Peter, has been looking after then for us while we were on holiday, and tomorrow we get to take them home. We’ve been on the Harrogate & Ripon Beekeepers Association course and are, unfortunately, the last people to get some bees.