As mentioned yesterday, the first job this morning was to syphon a few litres of water from the Bubble Machine, and replace it with a similar quantity of Severn Trent's finest.
I can now report that The Chatsworth is operating as I originally envisaged, although I reserve the right to add a squirt of washing up liquid if the floor in the greenhouse needs washing.
It was reasonably warm this morning, so I put on my bee suit and headed up to take a quick look in the hives. There is not a huge amount to report. They are all looking very good, and I have no concerns about their ability to make it through the winter.
Each of the colonies now has two or three frames of brood,* with the remaining frames** becoming filled with stores. I will feed them a few more litres of syrup over the next week, as each of the colonies has a frame or two that hasn't been completely filled. I didn't see any of the queens, but I could see that they are present and still laying. There is no longer any need for regular inspections and I will not open up the hives until I need to remove the Apistan strips in a few week's time.***
Having satisfied myself that the bees are doing well, I turned my attention to tidying the carport. The stone trough had been delivered on a pallet and I spent the rest of the day dismantling it. Generally this involves a lot of effort, but produces nothing more than a large pile of splintered kindling. However, on this occasion, the pallet came apart quite easily and I now have a decent quantity of reclaimed softwood ... I just need to find a project to use it now.
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* The queen will reduce the size of the colony in preparation for autumn and winter. Most of the drones have already been ejected from the hives, as they place an unnecessary demand on the colony's stores over the winter.
** A BS National brood box holds eleven frames in total.
*** The feeders will need to be taken off at some point, but that is non-invasive.
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