Hi, since my last blogg from the
Cornerfield Apeiry our two hives have massively increased, both our
queens are obviously doing well, as the brood boxes ( where the queen
lives) are crammed with sealed brood, eggs and grubs in various
stages of development.
The landing stages on the front of the
hives are busier that London airport!, with our girls coming and
going collecting nectar to make honey and feed themselves as well as
packing pollen for the juveniles to feed the developing grubs.
Queen Anne's swarm as at least “play”
cups this is a precurser to them thinking in about swarming as the
next step is to select which grubs are to become to new heirs
apparent and make their cells into queen cups. In theory this should
be a seven day cycle, but we have seen then do it in three, so I must
keep a close eye on them,as I want that swarm for one of our empty
hives!
Queen Victoria is much smaller but is
still expanding and we hope she will keep doing that for the rest of
the short honey season. All together so far we have had 7.5 Lb of
the two swarms and after out last visit another 12 frames to spin.
I hope you are all well and I will
write again
