A Visit from the Bee Inspector

My home APIARY (Not Lydney).
Well, a visit from the Bee Inspector is something which you should look forward to, as they can be really educational, but somehow when the phone range on Friday evening, asking whether Monday was a convient day to look at the bees. My first reaction was WHAT ON A BANK HOLIDAY.... and then oh yes no problem, can you let me know a time... "sorry don't know a time" comes the reply.  Anyway after the phone goes down, all reason leaves you brain, and somewhere in the back some small niggle and worry starts... what is he going to be like, will he be gentle with the bees, will he respect my way of beekeeping, oh and PLEASE please don't find anything wrong.... and somehow the tenision just built because it was not until late afternoon that finally on Bank Holiday Monday did the bee inspector arrive.  I must admit that I had virtually given him up a couple of hours before and having not looking at the bees for a month... I starting going through them.. because I needed to know if they need more food or not.

Anyway the he did finally turn up, all suited and booted with his posh bee suit with "national bee unit" embroidered in on the front pocket.  A nice cuppa to start just seemed to put me more on edge, and him being a quiet man with few words somehow did not settle me down much...


Anyway, away we went, starting with the observation hive, so out came the glass, and he runs his finger over the frames.... There the queen he says.... well yes obviously she has a big YELLOW mark on her back, and she is always easy to see it is an Observeration hive... and then comes the first question, is she last years queen as she is yellow.... and as it happened she was last years queen.... but then all my queens are Yellow so it took me while to twig, and explain to him then I keep a record of the year queen on the record not by the colour she is...."no commment".... but then I refection he is not allowed to pass comment,,, he is not hear to tell us how to keep bees just to make sure that there are no dieseas.

Now we are half-way through and to my amazement,  this is the first half which has  a problem with Chalk brood, very easy to recognize...  and so on we go.

Finally after 2 hours we have been through all 11 hives.... and he says " no notifiable diseases" the relief is just amazing you do not realize the tension that has been building for days, and he was so tight lipped that I had no idea till he reached the end..... but I knew in reality that I did not have any problems as I am always very careful and inspect myself... but still it is nice to know that I have not missed anything.

What followed was another cuppa, and a bit more friendly chat... he is a nice man  just a bit quiet.  Then comes the best bit of the day.. as I am in WALES,  and as WELSH as can be, I can get some great free hand-outs thanks to the Welsh assemble... sorry not available in England...ha ha... at last a benefit for being in Wales.