Over the Hill.

I was too busy yesterday for a blip; I needed to have a bee colony ready for next Saturday when a junior beekeeper needs it for his exam. It was a possibility that I might have to make one of my own colonies available but, after discussion with the examiner, the original choice is deemed suitable. It has a rather depleted population as two daughter colonies were created from it a week ago, but it has a laying queen, eggs, larvae and sealed brood and, for good measure, a little patch of drone brood. The young tyro will be able to point out all that one would hope to find in a healthy colony.
 
Then there was a check of my own colonies; one is racing along and needed a super (honey box) to start storing a crop and the sycamore will soon be in flower; the other, the one that actually cost me money, is just plain lazy. I didn’t like the colony from the beginning, it was aggressive in the autumn and just did make much progress; I found the queen for the fourth time in four weeks, something I’m not at all good at so, I’m afraid I killed her. The colony would be unlikely to survive with her, they might even have killed her themselves; in a week’s time I can give them some eggs from the other colony, from which they should produce a new queen, and then begin prosper.
 
Today, I checked the small colony in the garden; ever since I found that it had a major disease problem last August I have not expected it to survive for more than a few weeks; then, less than a month ago, my hopes started to rise, it is now a strong, healthy colony and ready to move into a full sized hive and, after a final health check, can go to the apiary. After all the TLC I’ve given it over the last seven months, I’m absolutely delighted,
 
The tulip was blipped in the garden, I’m a bit late for posting as a DerelictSunday challenge, hosted this week by Marlieske, but nothing ventured - nothing gained. (It’s still Sunday on the Marshall Islands.)