The Inspector arrived. I very carefully peered out of the window as he walked up the path. I couldn’t believe it. There 
I was yesterday scouring the web for a photo of an American Drill Sergeant to add to the text of my blog and here was one walking down the path toward the house. He had the heavy boots on and the hat was an exact match but that was wear the comparisons stopped I have to say though I did have a good giggle at the hat.
He was lovely and immediately helpful. The bee inspection was not exactly as I thought it would be. We went up to the Omlet to start with to have a look around and we immediately got stuck in looking around for any Varroa (there was barely anything which is a relief) and all the signs from the hive were good – we did remove a couple of frames from the hive as they hadn’t been drawn out yet and so we wanted to allow the bees to concentrate on building up stores rather than wasting energy building up frames. Read the rest of this entry »
I found the queen!! Fresh from the confidence I gained in spotting the marked queen yesterday in the nucleus – seriously I cannot tell you how much it helped me today – I found the queen! Even though I had seen them in the practice sessions I was amazed at how big they were and it was only yesterday that reminded me. Fantastic. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Surreybeekeeper | Posted in Beekeeping, Bees, Queen, Sting | Posted on 24-06-2010
I was once told a story by an experienced beekeeper over a beer. I thought it was like an 
initiation story (click here to read the original blog) with the aim of putting the frighteners on a naïve beginner beekeeper. “I once saw a beekeeper get stung in the eye” he said while I sat cowering round my pint. I left a little bit more fearful but came to the conclusion that he must have been making it up and was just saying that. I felt it was the equivalent of a builder telling an apprentice to go and buy an “air hook” or a senior lifeguard telling a newbie to go and get the “left handed broom” (yes, I fell for both of them). However, Tom was telling the truth as I found out tonight. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Surreybeekeeper | Posted in Beekeeping, Bees, Gardening | Posted on 02-06-2010
Crazy isn’t it how time flies. I cannot believe it is the 2nd June already. Today was a fantastic morning and I got up early to check on the bees to make sure they were alive and ultimately, that there were still there. Apparently a swarm of bees is still likely to swarm again if they don’t find the new location suitable. Fortunately they were still there and a quick look at the hive entrance showed them to be more active than normal probably due to the fantastic morning we were having already. The sun rise was beautiful this morning especially considering the day we had yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »
I was yesterday scouring the web for a photo of an American Drill Sergeant to add to the text of my blog and here was one walking down the path toward the house. He had the heavy boots on and the hat was an exact match but that was wear the comparisons stopped I have to say though I did have a good giggle at the hat.
