I've started bee keeping this year with 2 hives in my back garden in june with new 2014 queens.
Hive one is single brood on a national, hive 2 a brood and a half ( won't be doing that again - double brood next time if needed) and I'm lucky to live 1000ft up a mountain here in North Wales with several hundreds of acres of both Bell and ling starting directly from our back door and goi as high and low as the eye can see, and it's all started going to full flower in the last 7ish days, and when i went to see them yesterday afternoon about 1pm, it was like someone had turned the turbo switch on. I had to remove the entrance fully on both hives as the restriction of the bigger opening they were on, was causing a huge bottle neck and the sky was black and the fronts of the hives fully covered with bees struggling to get back in with the amount leaving. When I went back at 6:30 they were still going in and out like they were mid summer.
The let up of activity hasn't slowed, even during the odd rain period they are still 20 bees wide in and out of the hive.
It is incredibly surprising how quick they are now drawing out and filling super frames on this heather and this flow has been nothing myself or my mentor of 30 years has ever seen.
The honey smell outside the hive - even 3 ft away is strong.
I'm looking forward to seeing the results of this year.
Nick.
it dose not taken them long to fill up so you never know
