2024 Cliffe Castle Bee Blog #6
Steve and I checked the bees at the Observation Hive this morning and found them developing apace. We now have seven laid frames of worker brood and plenty of drone brood, in the expected locations. A couple of empty queen cups were found on one frame.
Queen Ruby was present and seemed quite unfazed by our inspection, but stores were limited and last week's jar of syrup was empty, so I went back later with another.
Think it's time to begin some swarm prevention measures next week and we will remove a grubby frame with some open stores on it, to add a frame of fresh foundation.
This morning I forgot to take any hand coverings, but these bees are so gentle, gloves are not really needed, other than for protection from propolis!
Look at the “disorderly queue” to get back into the hive this morning - you can tell the colony is booming from that alone.
