Colin Jim and I were working on the Apiary today. Of the proposed work we chose Queen marking, pond digging and "blackberry attack". Colin had some work to complete on the Frame Racks in the Queen rearing area equipment shed. When everyone was on site we duly inspected the Abbey Wood Nuc and found 1 frame full of sealed brood another half full of unsealed brood and a quarter full of sealed brood. There was very little in the way of stores so I’ll pop down tomorrow with a feeder, a couple of pints of 1:1 syrup to give them a quick boost and a couple of 2:1syrup which they can store in the drawn comb they have already prepared. A small feeder holding about 1 litre should do the trick. Her majesty was quite easy to find and we marked her white. The bees including the Queen were very quiet on the comb and of very good temper.
I started on the pond and at Colin’s suggestion we decided to divert the current path beyond the hedge on the southern side of the walnut tree. This enables us to make the pond quite a bit larger and at the same time makes the route of the path more interesting. The shape and position of the pond are now established. All we need now apart from a lot of hard labour is a large sheet of pond liner and a good selection of pond plants, we can hope for the wildlife to take up residence of it’s own accord. Colin says he remembers mention of a spare pond liner by one of our members! If we can get hold of a buckshee liner that would be a big bonus! The owner of the Elizabethan mansion has asked us to postpone our planned Nuc recovery until next Wednesday.
Barry
No comments:
Post a Comment