Monday, February 14, 2011

First Inspection of 2011

I took my first proper look in the hives yesterday.  I was pleased with what I saw, but also a little perplexed! There are plenty of bees in both hives and I saw one of my Queens, so that's good.  However, there wasn't any brood present.  At the beekeeping workshop held on Saturday there was talk that we should expect to see some brood being reared now.  After some discussions with others, it seems possible that a lack of pollen in the hive (I don't remember seeing any) could be imparing the bee's ability to rear brood.  I raised a therad on the EMBA forum and got some support from a couple of others; I added some pollen patties tonight!

It should be a warm week so it will be interesting to see if the bees take the pollen patties and start to rear brood.  I hope I will see something develop at the weekend.  I probably should have some more patties on hand - better go buy some!

Oh, there are a few pictures on the slideshow opposite this post!

No comments:

Post a Comment