Had my once a year visit by the regional bee inspector today.

[crichmond]

Well I had my yearly inspection by the regional bee inspector today nothing amiss apart from some chalk brood on one hive which still has some old frames in it, so I am going to double brood with an extra queen excluder so as to let the brood emerge then the old frames will be removed, the reason for using an extra queen excluder is to stop the queen laying in the frames I want to get rid of.

He also gave me a good tip to do when sugar dusting, after dusting with sugar and replacing the top on the hive use the smoker from underneath to really give them a good smoke so they make a lot of noise (obviously angry) and doing this seems to dislodge around 50% more varroa from the bees. He said this tip came from another beekeeper who he inspected and showed him what he did.

Whilst in my apiary he also took a sample of my honey to be analysed, something that is done randomly apparently from various apiaries, although he did say I would get a copy of the results he said it can take upto a year.

During the inspection I informed him of a problem with my strongest colony in that the queen had gone off lay since she tried to swarm about 2 weeks ago, I did say to him that if she didnt start again within the next couple of days then I was going to order a new queen and get rid (kill) the old one. There is a slight bonus to her not laying in that I have been able to change all the old frames in the hive for new ones. Just a bit annoying as this was my best queen until she tried to swarm and now nothing.

[rana]

I've never heard of a bee inspector!

And I thought the smoke was supposed to make them easier to handle rather than to anger them.

[crichmond]

Normally smoke does make them easier to handle, but smoking them a lot more than normal makes them agitated and increases the amount of varroa drop after sugar dusting.

More information on bee inspectors here http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/ and the information they collect https://secure.csl.gov.uk/beebase/

[sweetiepea]

Sounds like a very complicated business! I've great admiration for bee keepers, and the knowledge they - you - have. I'm lucky enough to be able to get local honey from a bee keeper in the village. Beats shop bought any day. He has lost quite a lot of bees over the past couple of years though, which is hard, but he is still persevering. Hope you produce loads this year Chris.

[tizzycat]

Bee Keeping has always fascinated me.

I hope you have a successful year.

[KayJay]

Chris, Glad to hear your bees are ok. my bumble bees in the compost bin must be enjoying being left alone as the garden is full of bees of all shapes and sizes all the time!
I should have asked you at the time but did you identify which bumble bees they are.
I would like to know
Kath

[Mrs Dobby]

Good that the inspection went well Chris, we'll be having our first one sometime next year, having register our apiary on Bee Base recently!

We moved our first hive full of bees onto the plot last night, the weekly inspection we carried out on Saturday (at the apiary where we put the swarms into it) showed we had capped brood, so we sealed and moved it late last night, and have been to check them this morning, all seems ok! Hoping to do an inspection on it later to check the queen is ok after the move, then off to the apiary we brought it from to check whether the brood in the second hive is capped yet, if it is then we can think about moving that hive too, just got to wait for the rain to stop first!

Have to say the move was a lot easier than we thought it was going to be, the girls were really quiet, not at all upset at being moved!

[rana]

More information on bee inspectors here Plants, Bees & Seeds and the information they collect https://secure.csl.gov.uk/beebase/

Absolutely fascinating, I never realised ther was such a comprehensive regulatory framework for beekeeping. It also seems you are up against it with respect to colony collapse, varroa and Melanococcus.