Pretty in Pink

Last Saturday, overnight, we had over an inch of rain. Pink cherry blossom covers my street giving it the appearance of an impressionist painting. I love such moments in spring time.

Since the weekend the temperature has fallen a few degrees and we are back to central heating at night once more. From my dry kitchen I viewed my rain drenched garden with concern. I know that at a certain point I should inspect Hv2, and maybe take a look at Hv1 also, but the weather was against me.

Today the sky cleared at last and with the sun coming out soon the temperature rose to 16ºc . As the rain was once again forecast for the next few days I thought that I must take advantage of the break in the weather and inspect the hives.

When I opened Hv1 I could see that the colony is getting on with things. After much searching I spotted the queen. Although there is plenty of stores I could see no sign of eggs, or grubs. Later on when I called on my bee friends, Jenny and Mike, they suggested that it's too early for this queen to start laying. They advised that I should leave this hive for 2 weeks as the queen may or may not have mated. It did look bigger than when I saw it over a week ago so it might have had its mating flight. Sex is such a complicated thing even for bees.

The new colony in Hv2 is more certain. I found the queen quickly and in the middle frames there are grubs waiting for their next stage of development. I removed the sugar feed and closed up feeling rather pleased even though I am still anxious about Hv1.