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.

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.

Inspection 4

Did this one after work and so it was 6 in the evening by the time I got there. It has been wet most of the day and although it was then sunny and windy the girls had a bit of "cabin fever" and were just a bit more tetchy. They are drawing comb on one of the frames of foundation and on the shallow frame they have completed the comb off the bottom now and are filling the frame with honey. I gave them another 2 litres of feed. No queen seen but there are plenty of eggs and brood.

Feeding

Checked the feeder yesterday (with my youngest daughter - she is now a beekeeper's daughter!) - empty! Put 2l of 1x1 syrup in. Had a quick look at a frame of foundation and they are drawing that now. Some capped honey on the shallow now too. Away for a few days now so let's see how they look on my return. Very crowded with bees in there now - brood is hatching - thinking about putting that super back on!