I had great plans for Sunday, but actually achieved very little.
The day started with a dog walk. My blood sugar was quite low, and I really didn't want to exercise, which would exacerbate the problem, unfortunately 30% seemed to ignore this concern!
Fortunately the walk was short. I would have preferred it to be non-existent, but short was better than bloody miles.
On our return, I wandered up to hive #2, and removed the two supers. The clearer board had been effective and they were virtually empty of bees. They didn't contain much stored honey either.* With the supers removed I placed a crown board over the two brood boxes and placed a feeder on top. Four litres of syrup were poured in to the feeder and an eke** was added to support the hive roof over the feeder. The bees should use the syrup as food and also the raw material to drive wax production. Hopefully they will start to draw out the wax foundation in to comb in the next few days.
The hive will be checked in about a week. At that point I would hope that the queen has moved up in to the upper brood box and started to lay.
In the afternoon I had plans to clear another area of the herbaceous border at the back of the house. Unfortunately 30% and I had artistic differences about the plans for the border, and that little job was abandoned for the time being.
Instead, I grabbed one of my ladders and repaired a joint in the guttering that had come adrift.
In the evening we popped over to share a Chinese Takeaway with Bubbles and Bobbyn. We had a pleasant enough evening, although Bobbyn was her usual self, and we both had to bite our tongues on a couple of occasions!
I will end this Journal entry on a more positive note. As I wandered around the garden this afternoon I noticed that the huge Ivy bush has just started to flower. Ivy is a fantastic source of both nectar and pollen, which bodes well for my three hives.
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* The bees are really struggling to find any nectar in this dry Summer, hence the decision to feed them and perform a frame change, rather than hold out a futile hope for a late honey harvest.
** An eke is a shallow lidless and bottomless box built to the same outer dimensions as the hive. It is used to increase space. In this situation to allow a feeder to be placed on the hive and allow the roof to be replaced.
Post Script: A few days ago I mentioned that my little honey stall is doing great business at the moment. Well, a couple of days ago a couple from London called at the gate and asked for another jar of honey. They had taken all four jars from my stall, but wanted to add a fifth. I gladly provided another jar and waved them off. Initially I was delighted until I realised that they had paid with a Scottish twenty pound note, and they can be a bit difficult to use round here. Anyway, they appeared at the gate again today and requested another five jars! Apparently all they can get locally is commercial supermarket honey, so they had decided to stock up. They paid with proper money this time, so I was happier about the transaction. I also found out that Tesco will take Scottish currency, so I will be using the dodgy notes to buy sugar for syrup feeding.
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