28th - 15°C

A few more days of cold, showery weather. Bees don't like it!

Hive L: Two supers removed. No sign of laying Q yet.

Hive R: Q laying on half of new comb. Good brood pattern. Rest of foundation not built up yet. One super removed.

Hive W: Q laying well. One super removed.

Hive 4: Q excluder removed and swarm (and Q) went down into brood box.

Apidea: Entrance opened and placed on tree house.

Hive 5: Q cell not hatched. Two small Q cells found and removed.

61lbs (29.5kgs) of OSR honey extracted.

24th - 20°C

Swarm! First warm & sunny day for nearly two weeks.

Hive L: Not inspected.

Hive R: Q found. Q cells removed

Hive W: Q found. Q cells removed

Hive 4: Two sealed and one open Q cells found and removed. Swarm was from here so placed in new box on top with Q excluder. Q emerged from one (small) cell so placed in Apidea with handful of swarm bees, closed and placed in dark.

Hive 5: Two small Q cells removed. Large one remained unopened.

21st - 12°C

Very cold and wet for the past 10 days. Quick check that colonies still alive.

13th - 20°C

Previous week was again very warm in the mid 20s. Last two days has been thundery. OSR still in full bloom. Apple and plum in flower.

Hive L: Lots of queen cells and no new brood so the queen had escaped last week. Removed all queen cells bar one. 2.5 supers full.

Hive R: ~10 queen cells so an artificial swarm was done. One frame of brood was kept and 10 undrawn brood frames added. 2 supers are full so a third is required.

Hive W: New frames being drawn out and eggs already being laid. One super full. The old foundation is not being drawn in the second super so it will be replaced.

Hive 4: Removed all queen cells bar one. Little honey in single super but then not many bees flying yet.

Hive 5: Other half of Hive R. Removed all queen cells except one sealed. No super.

6th - 18°C

Previous week was very warm in the mid 20s. OSR in full bloom and lots of blossom in fruit trees. Apple blossom still to come out.

Hive L: Almost two supers in one week so added a third. Queen cells starting so tried to clip the queen's wings but she flew off. Can't be certain she went back into the hive.

Hive R: Only about one-half of a super collected. Queen laying well but only early queen cups being produced.

Hive W: One almost full super but no inclination to draw out second super of foundation. Found queen cell days only days from being capped. Artificial swarm - all new brood chamber of undrawn foundation plus one frame of brood and store from previous colony.

Hive 4: New colony consisting of frames from Hive W, nurse bees, one frame of foundation and one super with 2-3 frames filled with nectar.