More successful in the workshop, than the apiary

 I started Sunday morning with a little light carpentry.  

I spent a couple of hours in the workshop fettling the tenons, to ensure they fitted snugly in to the mortises.  A bit of light sanding had them slotting together nicely.  The fit is snug, but they can be taken apart without excessive force ... apparently that is how things should be.

I marked up the joints and frame components and then checked the frames, to see how square they were.  I can report that I have two square door frames and eight nice tight joints. They aren't Chippendale or Sheraton quality, but they are certainly good enough for my little Sjobergs bench.

The weather has been cold all week, and today was going to be the best day for checking on the bees.  When I say, "best" I really mean "least windy, and least chilly."  The bees were flying, so I judged it warm enough to take a quick look through the hives.

The new hives*, established by creating artificial swarms from hives #1, #2 and #3, were all in good order. The colones in  #4 and #5 are still stroppy, but all three are building up quite nicely.  That is a good thing as the colonies left to raise new queens do not look great.

I only checked hives #2 and #3, and was encouraged by neither.  Hive #2 has no sign of a laying queen, so my plan is to leave it another week, before considering introducing a new queen.  As I worked any way through hive #3, I started to get excited by the sight of larvae and capped brood. However, on closer inspection it all appeared to be drone brood.  This suggests that I either have a drone laying queen,** or a laying worker.  If it is the former, I stand a chance of being able to find her, cull her and replace her with a new queen.  If I have a laying worker, the colony will be impossible to re-queen and will slowly dwindle over the next couple of months.

I'm a little disappointed by the state of the queen less hives, but that is beekeeping. I just need to look towards next week's inspection and develop a plan, dependent on what I find.

In the afternoon I had a snooze on the sofa, and then planned to mow the front lawn.  Fortunately there was a shower, which messed up my plans. I was actually delighted, as the weather was bloody freezing.

I therefore headed back to the workshop and trialled routing a rebate in some scraps of wood. I am now slightly more confident that I can route out the rebates to hold the door panels, without cocking up the frame components, and without cutting off a finger!

By three o'clock I had had enough of the cold, and retired indoors to light the fire. I tried to concentrate on my successes in the workshop, and the fact that I still have three queen right hives.  There was never any guarantee of the colonies successfully raising new queens.

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* Hives #6, #4 and #5 respectively.

** Possibly resulting from poor weather preventing successful mating flights