Smoking my hive

I checked the bees yesterday (Sunday 6th June), luckily shortly before it started raining yet again. They seem to be thriving. The queen was easy to spot with my messy marking from last week (see middle of photo below) – she doesn’t seem bothered and is laying well.

The queen

There is plenty of brood of all stages – you can clearly see larvae on the photo below. I even spotted eggs this time which was a relief, although they don’t show up on the photos.

Happy bees

As all the new frames have now been drawn out I took off the feeder and put on the first super to start collecting honey!

Ian took these great photos – here’s two nice close ups

Close Up Close Up