Bailey Frame Change completion

It is now twenty one days since I relocated hive #2's queen bee to the upper brood box as part of the Bailey Frame Change process.  All of the brood in the lower brood box has now hatched, which means that the lower brood box, with its dirty old comb can be removed, without impacting the number of bees in the  colony.

The first thing I needed to do was to place the upper brood box on a new hive floor, and then check through the frames. There were plenty of bees and stores, and the brood nest now seems to be spread across three frames. I didn't see the queen, but the presence of brood indicates that she is in there and laying. 

Next I removed the lower, now obsolete, brood box from the hive stand, and replaced it with the brood box that houses the queen. I now had two options. I could attempt to shake the bees from the obsolete brood box in to the chamber with the queen, or use a clearer board to separate the two brood boxes, and hope the bees move down out of the obsolete box overnight. 

I went with the latter option, and will see whether it was effective tomorrow.  I will also start to feed hive #2 tomorrow, once I complete the consolidation to a single brood box.

I then went on to check hives #1 and #3. Both hives are in great condition. The bees look really healthy and have plenty of syrup stored for the winter. They are already starting to cap off the stored syrup, which indicates that every thing is heading in the right direction. I spotted both queens, and I also noticed that almost all of the drones have now been excluded from the hives ... the bees know that the summer is over.

During this morning's Apiary inspection I heard Phil the Postie sound his van horn. Phil is, understandably, a little nervous of Wilson,* and this is his signal that he has post for us. On hearing the horn I started to jog from the Orchard to the front of the house. En route I managed to twist my knee and ended up limping up to take receipt of the parcel.**

I don't know what I've done to my knee, but it is really bloody painful. I spent the remainder of the day resting the injury. The knee has been strapped and plenty of painkillers have been consumed.  I abandoned any thoughts of fishing with Bubbles and did little other than read.

I really hope it is not as severe as it feels at the moment.

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* He is a lovely dog, but is incredibly territorial. Let's just say that he is a big softie if you know him, but a snarling, leaping maniac if you're a stranger!

** It turned out to be some Knapweed seeds purchased as a gift for 30%