September roundup

The season continues to wind down.
The main task for August has been treating the colonies for varroa.
I have used one type of treatment at Ravensden and something different at Scald End and I will publish a blog about this

At Scald End and Ravensden I am being helped by Duncan who contacted me about wanting to start bee keeping and the varroa treatment was an introduction to him of how contrary bees can be.
We had treated some bees at Ravensden without incident and the bees were very calm. When we did the same thing at Scald End it was overcast and thundery, things bees don't like, and the first hive we tried to do made it abundantly clear they would rather we went away. Duncan hadn't seen bees like this before so we went away as requested.
Two days later I went back, the bees took no interest in me and I did the 7 remaining hives in about 20 minutes. I didn't suite up except for my silly veil and didn't bother with gloves.

September time will be the time for feeding the bees in readiness for Winter. The various bits of kit we need are in place and we will start next week.

Stevington Manor

My seemingly unstoppable take over of the UK bee population continues a pace.
I have agreed to look after some hives at Stevington Manor and will do a blog about this next week.

Strawberry Grove Growers

Since my blog I have been working on one of the hives that will at the Grove.
Bee hives are normally boring looking things but I thought I would make this one  bit more colourful.

I will take it to the Grove in a couple of weeks,