Trigger-happy bees

28th March 2014

I have fallen a bit behind with my blog updates and what I am writing here is the inspection I carried out with three pupils on the last day of term. We had a window of about an hour before prize-giving and I thought that should suffice to have a quick look at both hives. We did manage to look into both hives and make it in time for end-of-term prizes, but only just.

The Moon looking deceptively sedate

Once again I had the head of science, Richie, as a helper (he is becoming a keen beekeeper himself, which is great and bodes well). This time the bees were somewhat more excited (which may have to do with the fact that I didn't use a smoker again; have decided that with children around it's probably best to use a smoker, if only as a placebo, as they can get nervous and then having a response to the bees is useful) and showed a great interest in Richie and the camera and it was not long before he was stung. After that the inspection seemed to turn into a free-for-all sting-fest, with most pupils getting stung (though not badly, as through leather gloves or several layers of clothes); the only one who remained unscathed was yours truly. This was the first time the pupils were stung - and the first time I wasn't.

Bomber bee!

So - what did we see?
The Star queen seems to be a lot easier to spot these days and we saw her, yellow dot shining. But we saw eggs in the Moon, which means the queen must be there in hiding, laying away quietly. We also saw some bees emerging from the comb. As last year, the Moon is ahead of the Star - the Moon has more bees and is busier.

The bees still have plenty of stores and both queens are busy laying, though the Moon has more frames of brood than the Star. In fact, I have the feeling the Moon is close to capacity and will have to check that more carefully next time.

We kept the cladding on as the weather is still not reliably clement (Ha! Is it ever?).