Hive Inspection
We carried out our first proper hive inspection on Friday, on both our hives (Clettwr and Leri). As new beekeepers it was all very exciting but seemed to go pretty well.
The plan was to go through the hives, try to spot the queens and if possible mark them, see if the bees had started drawing out comb on the new frames and generally see how they were getting on. At the same time we were hoping to get used to using our hive tools, smoker and wearing our bee suits.
So, as soon as Morgan was home from school, I got the smoker going and we jumped into our beesuits. My parents were here for the weekend so they watched from a healthy distance, although the did get a little closer from time to time without any problems at all.
We started with Clettwr as the colony in this hive had been installed for a few days longer than the one in Leri. The bees had started to draw out comb on a couple of the new frames and the frames that we installed with the nuc were heavy with honey and also contained eggs, various stages of larvae and some sealed brood. We also managed to spot the queen and mark her. All looked well with this hive so we put it all back together again, being especially careful with the frame containing the queen, topped up their sugar syrup and moved onto Leri.
The colony in Leri was much smaller, but was when it was installed as a nuc I think, and has been there for a few days less. However once again they had started to draw out comb on the new frames, we saw everything we wanted to see, and as far as we can tell the colony was happy and healthy. We also managed to spot and mark the queen as well.
All in all it was a successful inspection and we even remembered to record a video of the inspection of Leri, the weaker colony – Mind you it does go on a bit so I’m not expecting too many people to watch all of it. Just remember, this was our first ever inspection of a hive so I’m sure we don’t look like seasoned professional beekeepers yet.
