May

Weekly inspection – 11th May

Weather: big improvement with temperatures 17° C2 20° C. Set to continue with some showers

Forage: lots of chestnut, Hawthorn, cotton

Will need to see if blue colony needs intervention if the modified Snellgrove is not working

Also need to check on denim colony to see if the frame of eggs are being used for Queen rearing

14th May – Took Queen cell from denim and inserted into blue top box. For cyan took down to one Queen cell

Hive Record

Colony	Q	BIAS	Brood	Stores	Comment	Next Inspection
Aqua	Y	Y	13 frames of bias – donated one to green (nuc) okay for space	Nothing in the super but is being worked	Added two frames to make up to full double brood	Check on swarming and super activity
Blue	N	N	Top box looks to be queenless, bottom box, some some eggs and larvae	Plenty in both brood boxes	Need to add Queen cell to top box	Check on Queen present in bottom box, leave top box alone
Cyan	N	N	5 frames have capped brood, lots of QCs taken down to 2	1 kg in super, plenty of nectar coming in	Looks like they rejected the queen, so will leave Queen cell in place	Take down to one Queen cell and use remaining elsewhere
Denim	N	N	Small amount of capped brewed and four sealed queen cells – taken down to 2	Lots of nectar in brood box, so added super	Took the donated frame of eggs from last week and started queen raising	Check for emerged queen
Flax	Y	Y	Four frames of bias, large brood pattern but not many eggs	Plenty of stores and lots of pollen	Replace two monkey frames with foundation	Check if brood pattern expanding
Green	Y	Y	Two frames of bias	Bringing in nectar so okay	Needed strengthening, so added capped brood frame from Aqua	Check if continued strengthening required