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.