Garden Hive
I fed more sugar syrup to the garden bees - over 20lbs total! I did a daily check on the varroa fall which was still high. Then I completed a full hive inspection checking the broodbox and super to see how much there was in the way of stores and also for the health of the colony. To my amazement the Queen is still laying and producing plenty of brood. The weather has been great with the bees out flying each day and bringing in pollen and presumably nectar and water.
Tony arrived back from France late Saturday evening and early Sunday a flew off to Morocco leaving him 'instructions' on feeding syrup and doing the daily varroa check. I took the precaution of telling the bees that I was doing this as there is an old superstition about disaster coning to those who fail to keep the bees informed of family activities.
I was only away for five days to all well and Tony had produced at thorough report on varroa drop which thankfully had reduced right down to one or tow a day. He had not been confident about giving them more syrup but I think they had have adequate stores now anyway.
I missed a week as I was in Fez but I told the others in advance so everything is under control and anyway I am currently 'hiveless'.
Kenwood Apiary
Other Bee-Related Activity
Not much other activity. I keep up with reading articles and books on beekeeping and while I was away I looked out for honey in the souk. All I could find was in a jar with Arabic writing but also with ingredients including glucose so despite the pictures of bees I suspect that the contents were not 100% pure honey. I certainly would not have bought any even if it was all honey as I have enough honey at home and do not want to import any bee diseases but I would have been interested to taste it.
Before I left I checked the abandoned WBC hive near Ridley Road Market. It is still there and now closed up.
Bee Trivia no 7
A full colony can contain 60,000 bees. This number reduces in the winter but hopefully not too much!
I fed more sugar syrup to the garden bees - over 20lbs total! I did a daily check on the varroa fall which was still high. Then I completed a full hive inspection checking the broodbox and super to see how much there was in the way of stores and also for the health of the colony. To my amazement the Queen is still laying and producing plenty of brood. The weather has been great with the bees out flying each day and bringing in pollen and presumably nectar and water.
Tony arrived back from France late Saturday evening and early Sunday a flew off to Morocco leaving him 'instructions' on feeding syrup and doing the daily varroa check. I took the precaution of telling the bees that I was doing this as there is an old superstition about disaster coning to those who fail to keep the bees informed of family activities.
I was only away for five days to all well and Tony had produced at thorough report on varroa drop which thankfully had reduced right down to one or tow a day. He had not been confident about giving them more syrup but I think they had have adequate stores now anyway.
I missed a week as I was in Fez but I told the others in advance so everything is under control and anyway I am currently 'hiveless'.
Kenwood Apiary
Other Bee-Related Activity
Not much other activity. I keep up with reading articles and books on beekeeping and while I was away I looked out for honey in the souk. All I could find was in a jar with Arabic writing but also with ingredients including glucose so despite the pictures of bees I suspect that the contents were not 100% pure honey. I certainly would not have bought any even if it was all honey as I have enough honey at home and do not want to import any bee diseases but I would have been interested to taste it.
Before I left I checked the abandoned WBC hive near Ridley Road Market. It is still there and now closed up.
Bee Trivia no 7
A full colony can contain 60,000 bees. This number reduces in the winter but hopefully not too much!