Deliver-bee

Don't you just love getting things in the post?

One of my hobbies involves me receiving a lot of things in the post, however I am going to share with you what I got in the post today.

I made an order from Omlet (the company who made the eglu) and some important bee keeping bits have now arrived. I bought a queen marking pen so that I can mark the queen to make her easier to see when I inspect the hive. The queen is approximately 3 years old I believe so I bought a green pen as this matches the internationally recognised code for marking a queen of approximately this age. I bought some foundation and a good book about keeping bees. Some of the older 'beekeeping bibles' are a bit tedious to read and are a bit mean on the eyes, this book by Paul Peacock seems to be quite quick to the point which is great, it has received some great reviews so fingers crossed I'll get along with it!

The brood chamber of the hive is full of ageing foundation which is browning and this means that it needs to be changed. The bees are focussing on the middle of the hive at the moment, and some of the old brood frames at the edges of the hive can now be removed and filled with some of the brand new wired foundation.

The bees at the moment are not going in to the super at the moment, so I am seeking advice on how to encourage them up. I have had some great help on various forums, and I have removed the queen excluder to encourage the bees up. If I catch it right then the bees should have started drawing out the wax to make comb and the queen should still be in the brood box and then the queen excluder can be added again. If you don't keep bees then this last little paragraph might not mean a lot to you... sorry.

Another exam tomorrow but the end is in sight!! My last one is on Wednesday!

Really looking forward to our impending camping trip (next week) and just a general break.

Before I forget, the vegetables are rampant! The weather has been perfect again this week. Lots of rain during the night and plenty of sun in the day, a lot warmer than last week too. The courgettes are swelling up nicely, the salad leaves are just waiting to be picked (we had our first in a sandwich the other day), and the mange tout is really flourishing. The first bag of potatos I planted are now growing beyond the final covering of soil, so a week after they flower we will have fresh spuds!! We also planted out some broad beans in a trough and I picked up a blackcurrant cane from poundland.. for a pound! Can't wait for the first harvests to emerge.

Have a great day!

Martin