Bad management

Somehow, the bees are keeping things on track, notwithstanding wind, rain, polar north wind and frost. The air temperature today has barely hit double figures, and the northerly has added wind-chill, but there was some sun and the hives are in sheltered spots. Looking at the forecast, it was now-or-never, so we took a very quick look inside the hives, without fully disassembling them or doing a thorough comb-by-comb inspection. The risk of doing so would be to chill the developing brood, which can kill it. Bees keep the developing larvae at a constant 34-36C - almost blood temperature. Exposing open cells to air less than 15C can cause rapid chilling, so it's best avoided

Twelve days ago, we added a second box to the four strongest hives, doubling their size. Each box was filled with ten frames like this one, into which we inserted a thin starter strip of wax, embossed with the familiar honeycomb pattern. In that time, despite the low temperatures that make wax production and manipulation difficult, they have drawn out the wax to produce cells and filled many if them with nectar, pollen, eggs and, in some cases, growing larvare. At least six frames are drawn in all the hives and, in one case, all ten. We had left them with some sugar to fuel the process, and left some insulation above the ceiling, but I'm still impressed by what they have achieved in a difficult year

All the wax is this deep egg-yolk yellow - darker than new wax often is - I think because it is peppered with bright yellow oilseed rape pollen. Some of the other pollen they have stored in the cells is a rich red colour (possibly horse chestnut) - a combination reminiscent of eggs and bacon

I took the photo to illustrate what happens when the beekeeper gets it wrong. When I put this box on the hive, I must have done it clumsily, or knocked it afterwards. Somehow, I had moved one end of some of the frames, leaving a wedge shaped gap between two adjacent frames in the middle of the box. The whole point of the famous 'moveable frame' beehive design is to maintain a constant gap (a 'bee space', it is called) between the various components. Too narrow and they glue it up with propolis; too wide and - as in this case - they fill it with wax. I'm very lucky they did not build comb at right-angles, welding the two frames together. Unwelding them would have been messy

Rather, they have attempted to insert an additional row of comb, in line with the frames either side. This is much easier to chop out, after first making sure the queen was not hiding in the darkness behind the unwanted layer, at risk of being harmed. The small demolition job complete, we put the hive back together and got the roof on as fast as possible. The forecast looks miserable for at least the next 5 days. Who knows when we will be able to check again. Strange times