On Saturday the 26th of April we held a second session for people who attended our beginners course earlier this year. Although the weather was a bit overcast it was warm and the bees were flying.
Everyone gathered around as a hive was opened and inspected


As frames were removed for inspection an explanation of what was being seen was given

And yes! we found the queen!

One of our swarm collectors reported yesterday that they'd received a call to ask if they could collect a swarm. This is the first one that Rugby Beekeepers has been asked to collect this year. Very early compared with last year when the first swarms weren't appearing until mid-may.

Yesterday we held a session at our training apiary for some of the people that attended our beginners course a few weeks ago. A second session is scheduled for another group in a couple of weeks.

Our apiary manager Kim gave an introductory chat about the apiary and the colonies we were about to inspect.



Martin and Kim gave the first demonstration to the group on how to inspect a hive, explaining how 'Hoopers 5' and the development times of each cast of bee would be used to determine how hive manipulations would be decided upon and what the likely development of each colony would be.





The beginners were shown brood frames the pattern of how the queen laid eggs, the workers stored nectar and pollen and how the brood developed.



Despite the weather forecast suggesting we could have heavy showers, we managed to get through the session with no rain, nice warm sunshine and fairly happy bees.