Dennis 'decorating' the the queen
Eleven of us turned up for today's apiary meeting and despite the temperature being just over 10 degrees the decision was made to open up the hives for a quick inspection.
Six colonies were in fairly good shape with plenty of bees, queen-right and adequate stores but there was very little brood to be seen, and even less pollen - not surprising given the sustained cold weather over the last month. With relatively few bees it proved easy to spot the queen and the the opportunity was taken to mark some of the unmarked queens (well not so much 'mark' as to make a poor attempt at face-painting in one instance!)
One colony was in poor shape, with relatively few bees and no sign of the queen. Another was queen-right, but looked weak. If the queen is laying at the next inspection we'll consider uniting these two.
Six colonies were in fairly good shape with plenty of bees, queen-right and adequate stores but there was very little brood to be seen, and even less pollen - not surprising given the sustained cold weather over the last month. With relatively few bees it proved easy to spot the queen and the the opportunity was taken to mark some of the unmarked queens (well not so much 'mark' as to make a poor attempt at face-painting in one instance!)
One colony was in poor shape, with relatively few bees and no sign of the queen. Another was queen-right, but looked weak. If the queen is laying at the next inspection we'll consider uniting these two.