Inspecting Sarah's bees!!

So the weather has been less than kind this season and quite a few of the open apiaries have had to be cancelled.

Anyway I decided to pop over to Sarah's regardless today although an hour later than the OA was planned and upon arriving the rain gave way for a little while so we went down to have a look at the bees.

Sarah decided to look into the hive that didn't have a marked queen and this turned out to be a good idea as we spotted, caught and marked her so it turned out to be a very productive inspection!!

Sarah is a very gentle handler of her hives, frames and bees...far gentler then myself when going through a hive...made me feel a bit bad to be honest....maybe I should try it! The colony we went through were lovely and calm and there was plenty brood and eggs present. As it wasn't my hives and I wasn't inspecting I got to play with the camera a little....enjoy the photos!!

Sarah getting the first frame out,
very little in the way of stores.

The colony.

Lovely brood pattern

Capped brood on the outer frame,3 day
old larvae and grubs in the centre.

The photos above and below were taken by me placing
the lens of the camera at the hive entrance,
hence the reason they look upside down!

This frame brimming with bees is also full
of newly laid eggs!!

Hi Bee.

I love the way the camera picks
what it wants to focus on!

Looking across at the other hives
and watching the bees fly!

Drone brood and queen cups,
nothing in those cups though!!

Bees being capped off just
before pupating.

Brace comb from under the queen excluder
which the bees are cleaning out.

One or two dead bees whilst you
inspect is inevitable!!

Lift off!!!

They just realised where their
queen is located!!

These last few are too busy eating honey
remnants to care!!

We did find the hive quite low on stores so after sorting out the Supers Sarah placed an empty box on top and will put some syrup on tonight. The weather is supposed to be picking up next week but you never really know so better to be safe than sorry as they really are a beautifully natured colony!!

Bee Tree......Help!!

So there is a tree in a garden....plenty of gardens have trees so nothing strange there...however this one has bees in it!!

This is the spot which the
bees use as their entrance.

Not much to see when I put the camera in the
whole but you can see the bees are there!

I can't really see where they are
gaining access or how much
room they have.

There is plenty of
activity though!!

So not the best of shots in the world. Anyway why am I writing about this?? The owner of the tree would really like them out if possible. The tree in question is just inside the gate and although they do have other access to the garden would like the bees removed if it is possible to do so without harming either the colony or the tree. A bait hive was set up a few weeks ago but as of yet we have not successfully lured them out.

The hive in question is a full size B.S. with new frames of foundation in and also a super with new frames of foundation in. A few bees have been and checked things out but have not took the plunge to move the colony in.

Does anybody have any pointers, ideas or tips on things that we could try that might get the bees to move into this wonderful two storey accommodation we are offering??

The colony are  quite gentle and really weren't too fussed when I shoved a camera with a flash going off into the entrance of their current home!!