Support us Fundraisers My Beekeeping Diary My Beekeeping Diaryby Connie Rogers 27 December 2017Here I helped my dad apply the winter varroa mite treatments to 3 of our hives. After we hadtreated them, I gave each a packet of fondant to make sure they had enough food until theflowers appeared. 17 February 2018Disaster struck! One of our hives was knocked over. Daddy thought it was a badger. He put itback together, but it was too cold to look inside. 18 March 2018The snow was very pretty on our hives but dad said we need to keep the entrances free so thebees can come and go. We used sticks to brush the snow out of the way. 25 March 18The snow had now gone so me and daddy had a quick look at the tops of the frames. One hive weput a feeder. We also checked to see if the bees were eating the fondant we had given them. Ialso took a photo of a bee that was sat on the chicken wire – you can see the pollen she hadcollected. 13 April 2018This was our first proper inspections. The bees were coming on very well in this hive. There waslots of brood. Hopefully we will get lots of honey! 22 April 2018The small nuc box that the badger knocked over had lost her queen L Daddy said we could unitethem with one of the other hives to save the bees. 29 May 2018The really strong hive had become very aggressive and its bees were stinging anyone who camenear. Daddy removed the queen, but they would not accept a new queen so he had to get rid ofthem L . We did get 2 full supers of spring honey from them. 9 June 2018In half term we extracted the spring honey. Here I am holding a frame from the super of lovelycapped honey. Daddy cut the wax cappings off and I spun the frames in the extractor. 9 June 2018Later that day the phone rang and daddy said there was a swarm of bees! We went to a housenear the zoo and there was a big swarm of bees hanging in a tree. We shook it out into a box andtook it home. At home we placed a board in front of a hive and shook the bees out and watchedthem walk into the hive. It took ages for all the bees to go in! 6 July & 3 August 2018We gave a talk to the old people at St Monica’s care home where me and daddy keep 3 of ourhives. I wore my beesuit and the residents asked lots of questions. We also sold them some ofour jars of honey. Link to My beekeeping diary by Connie Rogers