Managed to go through the colony today (13 days since last), didn't find any queen cells, colony very active. Moved 3 brood above excluder and replaced with 3 frames with starter strips.

Nicki's holding the frame with the bees stringing. Queen on photo which is cloudy.

Still feeding syrup ! Will be 10 days before next inspection.

weather turned wet and cooler

A lot of rain these last 3 days, 8 days since we looked inside and we are going away for a bit soon.

The hive is situated on some slabs and some of the bees don't make it home( see photo), so I've given them a landing strip tonight to see if that helps. Is this normal?

I think the other photo is of some chalk brood that has been cleaned out?

One Varroa drop over one day.

few more photos

Queen Marked

Today 5 members from the local group came round to see my Apiary. Nick spotted the queen and held her while I dapped a mark of white paint on her - thanks. The queen is in the bottom box with all frames holding comb made on starter strips (7 frames of brood), one frame has been drawn for drone brood. The top box has 6 old frames which have brood on. I will be able to start to remove some from next week. Need to give some more syrup to stimulate growth.

An enjoyable meet.

Feed Old Stores

Checked and found syrup finished, have scratched open 2 frames of stores which are on old comb and placed in the eke where the feeder was. Need to decide how I will recover old comb wax?