What a scorcher July has been! It has been an uncomfortable beekeeping month due to the unrelenting hot weather which has also contributed to the bees’ increasingly bad mood.

On trying to requeen a particularly nasty colony, I needed some help lifting the heavy boxes so recruited one of our despatch guys to help. In my hastiness, I told him to come out as quickly as possible so when he turned up, he wasn’t wearing any wellies and had his ankles showing. This was a big mistake as the bees found his ankles and stung him several times. Luckily, he did not react to the stings and was back out to help within a few minutes – this time with parcel tape around his ankles! This is not recommended but it did the job. Unfortunately, I did not get chance to take a photo.

This month we have also introduced some queens for those colonies that were suffering a little from old queens or those whom had undesirable traits. These were introduced using a simple queen introduction cage with fondant. These have been left in the hives for the workers to eat through the fondant towards the queen. Once they reach her, they will hopefully accept her as their new queen.

With this hot weather we have seen the early arrival of wasps. They hang around under hive rooves and will go after any spilled honey or syrup so it is especially important to keep apiaries clean and tidy to avoid encouraging them into the apiary. For this reason, entrance blocks have been fitted to reduce the risk of wasps finding their way into a hive unchallenged.

Here’s hoping we get some rain soon!