Visit from the Bee Inspector

Lindsay, the bee inspector, came round. He's a good chap and last time he came, about 3-4 years ago, he rescued one of my hives for me.

Since taking off the rape at the start of june I don't think I've done anything to the bees, they've just been getting on with it.

This time he doesn't need to do too much rescuing. The hive that will now get called number 1 was a new swarm this year that I somehow got the queen in the wrong place for - she ended up in a super. Oops. Lindsay finds her for me and I get to see her for the first time, before he carefully puts her into the broodbox. Sadly I can't find my queen-marking pen in the hurry. The only other thing wrong with this hive is that its stuffed full of honey to overflowing, probably borage says L because its very pale and the wax is white.

Hive 2 - the one that overwintered - is fine, but again full. In fact we can barely lift the two supers off. L tells me to get some more supers on in a hurry. The brood box has a bit too much honey in it, so L swaps two pure-honey frames to either end, in the hope that I can replace the comb next spring.

Hive 3 is the small young swarm that I wasn't sure had a queen. It does have one now, because there is fresh brood, and a fair number of bees. But it has varroa, so I'll need to put in an apistan strip.

Last of all L gives me a new booklet on some dread mite, but since (as he says) it hasn't reached Europe let alone the UK yet so I'm not too bothered.