for Beeswax

The bee keeping season will be reaching the stage, by mid April, when we will be looking inside the hives for the first time.  The purpose of this first inspection is to see that the queen has enough room to lay her new brood and that the bees are not overcrowded.  The aim is to try and prevent swarming and these are two of the factors that can lead to swarms.

One strategy that we employ is to give the bees a new comb of wax foundation.  The bees just love this when it is fresh and draw out the comb and start to lay in it immediately.

So in anticipation of all this,  it is necessary to make or buy some new foundation.  Here you see the new wax being removed from the mould in which it has just set.  This step is in the capable hands of my daughter in law, Robyn, who is now in her second season of bee-keeping.