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Apairy visit 30th May 2015

5/30/2015

Can you spot our Queen ?

Delighted with today's visit to the apairy.
weather was not the best , cloudy and overcast with a temperature of about 11 to 13C and a bit breezy .Even with the wind chill factor dropping the temp a little , our girls were in fine form .

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Apairy Visit 26th May 2015

5/26/2015

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Queen wasp nest building

5/22/2015

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Queen wasp - nest building

I spotted this beginning to start in the garden shed this afternoon - check your outbuildings

Queen wasp nest building

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A tale of two hands

5/20/2015

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A tale of two hands

So i went out to help a friend with inspecting his beehives in an attempt to offset his bees swarming . The month of May is the start of swarming season when beekeepers all over the country get nervous about loosing their bees .
It was great to helping and learning about swarm control , where we inspected 12 beehives and applied swarm control measures to at least 10 of the beehives. .

After opening a hive and inspecting for both the queen , to see she was present and laying fresh eggs , and looking for new queen cells. If we found some queen cells we knocked them down .

The hives were broken , where we added another brood box below the queen excluder , which had deep drawn frames - this was giving the queen lots more room to lay new eggs and would go towards helping her not swarm out of the hive.

Unfortunately a few of the girls decided they liked my left hand - and just over a dozen of them stung my hand . Lets see how the swelling progress's over the next few days

6pm 20th May

9pm 20th May

10am 21st May

3pm 22 May

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Honey containers

5/8/2015

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Morning everyone .
Do you know anyone around the country who supplies plastic containers.

The type I;m looking to find out about are the one's similar to ketchup squeezy containers .

What I want them for is to supply friends and family around the country - with locally produced honey .

They need to be plastic because most courier companies have issues with transporting glass jars of honey and I'd prefer if the container had a "honey" theme instead of the tomato theme.

Pic credit http://www.thegreenhead.com/2013/03/big-tomato-ketchup-dispenser.php

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Jay Bird

5/4/2015

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Caróg liath

Caught by surprise as we strolled around Mooreabbey Woods to catch a fleeting glimpse of a big red squirrel hopping into the trees , I got the camera ready in case we spotted him again . To no avail - he was gone to the treetops .

However a few hundred yards later , Sheila spotted what she thought was a woodpecker - a strange and unusual bird , brightly coloured and picking at the bark at the base of several tree's .

This time I got him , and if i don't say so myself , he looks splendid .