Wind up

Off to put the clearer boards on at the park, only to find they have been seriously tucking into the supers, so just put the supers below the brood boxes on all but one hive. Not much for me to harvest. Disappointing.

On top of that the queen rearing is not going brilliantly. Using cupkit system and in the hive I looked into today. 4 out of the 10 eggs I put on the cellbar have nice sealed queencells. Seems a low strike rate. Struggling to remember if that is normal. My mate reckons its the time of year, but I'm not convinced.

Thinking about it the two issues are probably related. I did put Neopoll on the cellbar, and it was all gone. but I reckon if there had been a better flow on I would have had greater success.

Went to look at a possible new apiary site. Nice people, but too small, damp and dark. I do need to move some hives before the end of August, but they wanted £20 a year, plus a share of the honey crop. I couldn't help it. It was out of my mouth before I could stop it, "Oh, that's unusual. The normal rent is a jar of honey per year per hive."

Wonder if they now think I'm not the beekeeper they want.

 

[Hombre]

With an offer like that, I would try their neighbour and lavish honey on them, so that they get to know how greedy they tried to be.

Did they offer to throw in their daughter and breakfast as part of the deal?

Each of my apiaries was primarily offered and renumeration was very much a secondary issue. My hosts are generous and I try to reciprocate accordingly.