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Old Speckled Hen

First Look-In of the year.

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I was able to inspect mine just over two weeks ago. Two colonies looking good - I left honey on there last year because I couldn't get round to extracting it, so they had plenty of stores. I need to find time to inspect again because the capped brood I saw last time will have hatched and with this sunny spell they could be expanding rapidly.

 

The third colony isn't really mine - long story but I took it in temporarily (nine months ago! :roll:) for another beekeeper who needed somewhere to put it. It was a swarm last year, looked good going into winter but it's turned out to be a drone layer.

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I did my first inspection of the year yesterday. The bees must have been busier than I thought .....all 3 hives had brood boxes rammed with brood and stores (there was no space left at all for brood or stores) the biggest hive have also filled the super I left on there last year. I know that you aren't supposed to add supers and queen excluders until you have 7-8 frames of brood but I added suppers anyway to give them more room.

 

We have loads of gorse round here and it's flowering like crazy, so I suspect that's where the bees have been.

 

I'm just waiting for my mentor to arrange to come over to mark my queens and to make sure everything's ok.

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Nice of you to ask! I did my inspection two days ago as have just started new job and been manically busy. Good thing I did because they were storing so much and had run out of space for brood. So I put in two empty frames and today have ordered more and will add another three at the end of next week plus Supers - am going to try the narrower Hoffman supers to see if that encourages them up into the supers.

 

They are bringing in two colours of pollen - a creamy pale yellow and a strong egg yolk yellow. I will also have to do the Spring cleaning recommended in the book because so many of the winter bees just dropped dead at the end of their lives and need cleaning out.

 

Just praying for good weather next Sunday cos am on training course all week and have to work a full day Sat as well.

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