A long time over due update!

And an apology to Vals Dad for not updating before!

Not a lot has really been happening that has been worth updating! Summer continues - the bees have been doing their thing! We insect them weekly although it has now been two weeks since our last inspection due to our holiday in the Rockies (we went to Canmore for a few days and then last weekend was busy so we have only just got around to inspecting the bees).

Anyway, when we last inspected the bees we noticed two things. Flora (hive one) had a Queen cell almost ready to be born. This meant that either their Queen had died or they were not happy with their Queen and were planning to kill her off. It was unlikely they were going to swarm as there no signs they needed to swarm. And they have not swarmed so I was right! I didn't get a picture of the Queen cell sadly but it was a beauty - you could see the Queen bee inside in all her glory! It was a big Queen cell. I wish I had my camera with me! Next time!

The other thing we noticed was that Freya, my swarm hive was ready to have a super added (another box) as they had filled 70% of the brood box. So we added another box before we left for holiday. We added two of their filled frames to the upper box to entice them up to the higher level and this worked wonderfully as they are now using both boxes well :) in fact both boxes are now almost full of brood and honey :)

So now I will continue with my updates and lots of lovely bee pictures for you all! And sorry Vals Dad - Val tells me you're not happy that I haven't been updating :)