The hive opening on 26th went off as planned. Luckily the weather had cleared up by the evening. Jane opened up 3 of the hives giving a running commentary as she did so, leading into discussions with those attending. We left the colony with the QCs alone and the 2 nucs in which Chairman Peter and I had installed virgin queens supplied by David Williams earlier in the week. The other colonies had been light on brood frames with stores when we robbed them to make up the nucs so I went back on Saturday evening to feed them. At Jane's suggestion I have also fed the colony in the poly hive to see if that will further encourage them to develop

Watch this space for the details of the next visit. We should be able to look in on the 2 nucs by the end of next week (w.c. 06 Jul) or certainly the week after especially if the weather has been fine allowing the queens to complete their mating flights and commence laying.

Checked briefly on 18 Jun. No QCs in the supers moved above the excluders. Much sealed drone brood and some occupied QCs in Hive 1 - best left alone now until late July.

WVBKA Hive opening planned for Pembridge on 26 Jun will now be at the association apiary RV at 1900hrs.

Hopefully before then we will also have 2 nucs with new queens on site courtesy of David Williams. The embryonic queen rearing group will be doing things on site i.d.c. - watch this space.

Cliff

Next visit planned for Thursday 11 June @ 1600hrs.

For the Basic Assessment we have to have colonies in single brood boxes so I will be manipulating those on a box and a half etc in order that they comply. Also time to check on those colonies which have had QCs either for supersedure or swarming preparation to make sure they are queen right and add supers to all those without, which are now ready, in order to take advantage of the expected main honey flow in July.

Next visit planned for Thursday 11 Jun at 1600hrs - weather permitting.

Activities to include checking those colonies which have replaced their queens to ensure that they are queenright,

Manipulating hives so that they are on single brood boxes ready for BBKA Basic Assessments in July.

Making sure that all, which are sufficiently advanced, are ready to exploit the main honey flow (add supers).

Cliff