Taking off the Rape

I'm busy at the moment, so had been putting off taking of the rape supers. Which of course just makes it worse.

But this afternoon was warm and I finally knuckled down to it. 4 supers in all, most with some crystallisation but not too bad. Get the extractor I have a 1/3 share in, annoyed that my co-owner has slightly bent it (straighten) and left it wet (clean and dry it). I could have done without those two.

In the evening, extract, with the help of my kids; get it practically full, so thats judged just about right. And then return the supers to the bees, just as it starts raining.

And all without getting stung once!

Beekeeping: one good, one bad

Worried about solid rape in the hives, so today I had a look at 2/3 of them.

Small hive turns out to have no obvious brood... oops. Well it may recover I suppose.

2nd hive has brood, and a fair amount of stores, but still seems reasonably liquid. So I don't think I need to hurry about extracting it. Might do it tomorrow, time and the tide suiting.

Phone John Rayner, CBKA, to see if they still want my 2nd hive, and they do, so he will probably come to collect tomorrow evening. Which will be a bit more free time for me!

Beekeeping: waking up

First post of the year. Its been a cold start to the year and I haven't done much.

About 2 weeks ago I looked into my two main hives, and removed 3 brood comb from each. This was a Cunning Plan on my part. It was based on the idea of replacing some comb each year, to prevent them becomming to old, warped, and disease prone. But I also thought, aha, that will knock them back a little and maybe they won't swarm.

I didn't do it to hive 3, and lo and behold yesterday ago I had a swarm. Which I recaptured, offered to the CBKA, and then today it had gone. Hey ho.

The Larder at Barton has sold 20 jars of my honey and wants some more, how splendid. And an enquiry from the National Trust.