UEA Bluebell Road Apiary visit

UEA Bluebell Road apiary visit

After one of the hives was knocked over the over day I wanted to visit the apiary again to check that the trouble hadn't happened again. The hive was still upright and the bees were still near the top of the top brood box and taking the sugar syrup too. I needed a some smoke to get them down and to reposition the frames and in fact I took out an empty shallow frame at the edge.

It was good to see that the bees were taking the food. Maybe it will be time to start feeding them all sugar syrup again soon.

UEA Bluebell Apiary vandalised

UEA Bluebell Apiary vandalised. I can't visit every hive every day even in the summer let alone the winter. I have however, been dropping into the UEA apiary on a fairly regular basis just to check that the hives were still upright.

Today one wasn't.

The top brood box was on the ground on it's side. I was able to pick it up and place it back in position on top of the bottom box but I was getting stung so much that I had to retire and go back for my beekeeping suit in order to get the frames back into position. Even so there is still one sticking up proud. I will have to visit the hive again in a day or two with a smoker and sort it out properly.

These bees do not like being messed around with on the best of days and in the best of conditions - today's circumstances were neither.

The good note I can draw from it was that I could see (as you can in the photo) that there were plenty of bees in the hive.

The second hive was left alone. Hopefully the young vandals were also getting stung for their trouble and had decided to retreat from the scene of the crime.

http://patricklaslett.blogspot.com/2008/10/another-bright-sunny-day.html

Fondant

I put fondant on most of the hives that didn't get any before Christmas including those in Old Costessy.