April 8th - this was the first time we had been through the bees this year and there was some sad news and good news. Starting with the sad news - Hives 9 and the only Nuc did not make it threw the winter, Hive 9 was no surprise, but we thought the nuc would of made it. So the remaining bees were shaken out of the hive in front of another hive into which we hope they will be accepted. Then all the equipment was cleaned and sterilized and put away.
The good news is that we have 14 hives all with queens that have survived, all in varying strength. Here is a photo of a perfect example of a frame I saw, which have sealed brood, lava, eggs, pollen and food.
At the end of the evening we enjoyed a cup of black tea and coffee, must remember the milk and discovered we missed out 2 hives, so we will do those on Sunday.
On Sunday the 28th March, about 40 of us had are pre-season get together and had sunday dinner and coffee at bells golf course in coleford. It seemed that most people enjoyed it and lots of talking about bees took place. We also most importantly toasted the bees. Here are a couple of images
On 27th March, it was the Welsh beekeepers convention at Builth Wells, in order to manage to get a few of the thornes bargins meant an early start leaving a 7.30 and getting there about 9 am to find that about 100 people had beat us to it, but we get most of what we wanted. Then the lectures started, I went to the morning lectures, firstly an interesting lecture from american beekeeper keeping bees in France and Chille and how he has bred the bees to cope with the varroa might. Below is the only image of took of the Maisemore van doing wax exchange. Good day out
Finally for this post is a few images from the caravan before it become a clubhouse. Look at the state of it and think about it now!
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