A winner by any other name

The apiarist watching me from behind the window is called Alyssa Miller, actually an American but with German blood - Müller then, just like todays World Cup goal scoring German.

Miss Miller is somewhat out of date. This is her 2013 look no doubt taken in 2012. She is one of the months models in the 2013 Würth workshop calendar. I only got close enough to her to spot the word "Würth" and had to research in Google.

It wasn't that I was shy (which I am) but the mass of bee hives suggested I didn't get too close. This rather attractive hive was spotted on todays dog walk, during which we spotted another beekeeper tending his hives.

Yesterday evening I did some work on mine, moving them all about 1 meter on to a better and importantly lower platform. Also took the chance to move the nucleus (off-spring) colony in to a new full size hive. Activity in all four hives but I didn't do much inspection not wanting to disturb them further.

It's now 3 weeks since I made the big move - by the way, I didn't manage to collect the swarm, it disappeared in to the forest overnight. So should now have repaired any damage I did and assuming new queens have been activated, they should now be at work, so will attempt a full detailed inspection soon.

Have been waiting for some beekeeping books to arrive from the UK including the appropriately named "Beekeeping for Dummies". Not sure I am up to that level yet but one needs to have an aim in life - not all of us can be (role) models.