Winter stores

The children all came back to school today, on a gloriously sunny day. Winter stores sounds slightly out-of-place, but with the foraging force decreasing, it is time to check how much the bees have stored up for the cold season. Originally I wanted to inspect the Moon hive tomorrow, but as the forecast for Friday was rain non-stop, I decided to do it today. Once again it was no difficulty finding volunteers: the bees are as popular as ever with the pupils. So the three pupils and I all kitted up in the burning sun.

I've talked a lot about the advantages of beekeeping in a school environment - and they are many. But today I discovered a disadvantage. A beesuit is hot. Handling the bees in a way that will not antagonise or squash them requires care and concentration, which produces heat. In summer I regularly sweat so that it drips through the veil (sorry if that is slightly unsavoury) and a hive inspection can turn a light blue shirt dark blue. Having to teach after having just done a hive inspection, as happened today, is not comfortable.

But back to the Moon.

The super was still busy with activity and the bees haven't cleared out their honey stores from there yet. Will have to force them to soon. Quite how I do that is anyone's guess. Hopefully taking all frames out and leaving them with only one at a time will induce them to store in the brood chamber. Because there is space still in the brood chamber.

Showing two capped honey cells to a pupil

Anyway, opened the brood box and decidedly fewer bees were in there, so the colony does seem to be cutting back. In fact I could find no eggs or larvae (should I worry about that?), although there was still some capped brood. Didn't see the queen either.

A much quieter hive

We did see plenty of honey stores, though and some wasps trying to nab some honey.

Propolis, propolis, propolis and some bees

The pupils were hugely interested in all that was going on and asked lots of questions. One girl kept trying to get a bee to land on her hand, but none would play ball. The children wanted to know about drones and what they do (influenced by modern warfare, they originally thought the drones were the guard bees) as well as how long the bees live and how they spend their days. It was a shame we didn't see the queen. They would have loved that. I did tell them though that she had clipped wings and they couldn't quite fathom how you do that with an insect. Although I know how, I'm not sure I could do it.

Another drawback (if that): I asked one pupil to keep a tally of the food stores on the frames. Apart from not getting the numbers right, his scrawlings are not easy to decipher. In such cases always blame the teacher - so I guess my instructions should have been clearer.

Who can decipher this? And make it add up to 10 frames?

What I did gather, though, is that the Moon has quite a lot of stores, but on most frames still space to store more. After I have solved the super problem I will start feeding them, although it sounds slightly unseasonal in this unseasonal Indian summer.
In fact the bees are still busy collecting pollen and, I assume, nectar.

Lots of activity at the entrance to the Moon

In the star I changed the medication, so they received their second dose of Apiguard. Hive much more quiet. Am worried about the Star. Might have to put the two colonies together over winter.

Didn't get stung once, though there were wasps in the area and air (more about the wasp trap later), which is good.

But let's end on a positive: I let the children take the photos and they did that really well. Inadvertently they even made a video, which is actually quite fun and fascinating to watch.