May: Peace before the practical

Summer has definitely arrived in the apiary....

There are a few moments of peace ....

...before a burst of activity...

We did teach our beginners to light smokers properly and not simply set fire to them!

 

Smokers lit!  Let the inspections commence....

This week seems to have been a week of interesting wax building...

This on the inside of a crown board ...

Isn't it gorgeous....

This on the brood chamber side of a dummy board...

A little bit of teamwork and our inspections were very nearly done....

 

and peace can return to the apiary...

April: Tidying up and breathing in the blossom....

What a lovely spring morning!

But there is no time for lollygagging around admiring the blossom....

That mound won't trim itself you know...

and the shed roof definitely needs a thorough inspection....

And look, when you set your mind to it you can clear a complete path!

..and dig out a tonne of weeds....

And you can hoover so fast that the photo blurs....

And if you've worked hard enough, you never know the sun might just pop out from behind a cloud and reward your efforts with a glorious view of blossom trees in the apiary...

Duck race 2014

Not the most obvious entry for a blog entry for an association of bee keepers....and you may think this looks like an ordinary plastic duck....the sort of thing a child (or a bee keeper!) might play with in the bath.  But it wont look like a duck for very much longer....

A dab of mascara here...

A stripe here....

A wing here...

An evening to dry properly and our new queen duck is taking shape...

A second set of wings and she is all set for the race....

Safely delivered to the start line, she obviously took to heart that she should behave like a bee and tried to get off to a flying start (there she is just hanging around in the starters net)

That starters net proved to be a serious handicap as she promptly capsized...

C33 was last seen scuba diving towards the finish line...

But none of that matters really. A jolly good day out was had by all who attended and much needed funds were raised for Casey Childrens' ward at Epsom hospital, and other local charities...

For more photos of a great fun day out please follow these links:

ECRA duck race 2014

Duck race 2014

April 2014: Beginners practicals

Our beginners classes have taken full advantage of the warm start to April.teaching has progressed a pace...

Frames have been very closely inspected and unwanted brace comb, however attractive, has been spring cleaned out of the hives...

Talking of spring cleaning, we decided to take some samples of flying bees to test for nosema, jam jars and old honey jars were pressed into service to capture 30 flying bees...

Abdomens were snipped away from bodies...

And ground up into bee gut soup...

A drop from each sample was dripped onto a slide and examined under the microscope for tell tale "rice grain" nosema spores...

And the good news is that all the hives we tested had only the tiniest indication of Nosema.

March 2014: Herald of Spring "Blooming Marvellous"

It really doesn't seem like a year since we did this, but it is!

We must have been very well behaved as not only were we asked back, but we were promoted to a room on the ground floor.

It was truly blooming marvellous..you really did have to look quite hard to find the library!

We had our information boards...

We had a full stand of honey...

And plenty of information about what we can offer to anyone interested in learning about bees and bee keeping...

We had a great day out - how about you?

December 2013: Dipped bees wax candles

Probably the most eagerly awaited social event of the year!  Our evening of mince pies, mead and making dipped wax candles.

We started with some careful preparation, breaking up the wax reclaimed from our solar extractor, warming it in a bain marie to melting point then carefully pouring it into our expertly designed wax pot ( two baked bean tins welded together and set into two paint tins)...

Very soon our wax pot was ready for us to dip our pre-prepared wicks...

Then the real fun began.  A self organised group of bee keepers in a constant procession dipping wicks that gradually built up to be candles...

There was a rack for those who needed to pause and leave their candles to rest for a moment whilst they sampled a little mead and a mince pie or roll out a flaw between two sheets of glass...

There were no prizes for the biggest candle of the night...

Everyone had a prize candle to take home...