The weather has been good over the past week and I have visited the hives twice……
Two of the hives are not going to make it over winter – the last two swarms that were caught in late June (Kilndown and Hawkhurst). However, we should get Joy, Harmony, Faith, Grace (weakest of these five) and Prior’s Heath through the winter with a bit of luck….which would be good considering we only had one colony at the start of this year. That is the good news.
The not-so-good news for those of you who have had honey from us in the past few years is that I have decided to leave all the honey on the hives……we could have taken two supers….but would have left Grace and Prior’s Heath without enough winter stores…..and I am not sure that they would have packed-down enough stores by simply feeding them syrup.
Grace and Faith also showed signs of verroa…..with bees quite diseased flying in and out…..so hopefully the treatment will work on them.
Strange with the credit crunch. It is somehow that the bees themselves are keeping their liquid assets in the bank and that there is no dividend or bonus for us this year. The analogies between the bee world and the human world remain fascinating to me as I start a new venture. I might write more on this. I am inspired to even write a new section of this blook! Watch this space!
Bee Lore 
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