Thursday 4 September 2008

There's one piece of good news, Hive 2 (the 'foreign' hive) now has a large expanse of eggs, so hopefully that queen's going to be OK. Hive 1 (the little swarm) has a capped queen cell by now; I went through it on Tuesday and broke down all but one uncapped cell. That way I eliminated every queen being raised from a larva that was too old to convert properly. Hopefully they'll be OK, but the colony is decidedly small to be raising a queen.

Apart form that, it's been raining all week, and my head is splitting.

6 comments:

  1. I followed your link from Authonomy. I like your blog here. I am a keen gardener, so I shall be around visiting regularly.

    I saw the pictures of the bee hives. They give me the shivers.

    Take care,
    Anne

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  2. Don't be intimidated. I never get stung unless I open a hive and dismantle the bees' home, and not often then.

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  3. Hi Robert
    I had meant to look at your book on authonomy after you'd commented on mine (Map Reading - thank you), but got sidetracked into coming here by your profile. I'm also in Brum - with allotments behind me and beehives down the road. All drenched at the moment. Anyway, nice to meet a fellow local writer - I'll get back to your book now!
    K

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  4. I wish Authonomy had a messaging facility! I've been chickening out of writing about writing here, but I can see I'll have to start. Where are you - I know about the hives in Kings Heath Park, but I don't know where else people have them. There are a fair few scattered about.

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  5. I'm in Kings Heath and the hives are down the road in Highbury Park. Feel free to email me at the address you'll find on my blogger profile if you want to talk about writing privately! Sorry if Anne and I have 'outed' you to the beekeeping world!
    K

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  6. That's the local Association apiary there. I've never kept hives there as I'd have no chance of being able to raise the queens I want if they were surrounded by a lot of differnt strains.

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