Cooler weather

This weekend was decidedly cooler (my good lady insisted on having the central heating on this evening!) but the sunshine meant the bees were out foraging. I did notice that the propolis was harder and everything cracked as I moved frames around rather than the usual sticky sound. Saw workers bringing on propolis too. Now feeding with 2x1 syrup.

More guests

My good friend Kevin came with me to do a hive inspection this weekend. Although he was initially nervous, he did really well and even held a frame! He took some video with his camera but thought he was taking photos so it wobbles around a bit but here it is:

We saw the queen and Genesis is looking pretty good - plenty of eggs and brood and stores building up. Gave them the first feed of 2x1 syrup today. Will continue with this until mid October - depending on the weather. All frames are now either being drawn or filling with honey.

Inspection 6 - Queen spotted!

My daughter's boyfriend's dad came with me today. He has no experience of bees but was very calm around the hive and enjoyed his visit.
Saw the queen today and managed to get a spot of green marking paint nicely on her thorax - sounds easy doesn't it? It wasn't! I got her in the queen clip OK and then put her on a frame of foundation. I don't have a press in cage but got some paint on her (and also on a few workers!). Anyway, job done and that should make her easier to see in the future. She looks a bit like this:

Plenty of brood and eggs today. They are now drawing comb on the final frame of foundation now.
Girls were very quiet and calm today but got quite agitated when I was dealing with the queen so I shut things up and left them to it.
Gave them the large feeder full of 1x1 syrup today - 5 litres.