Down In The Park (almost)

We didn't have time to look at the apiary in Pearson Park Wildlife Garden during the Avenues Open Gardens this year but I popped down to have a quick look last weekend. When I first blogged about the garden in August 2011 they had two hives, a  WBC and a Kenyan Top Bar Hive. Later in 2012 a National hive was added bringing them up to three colonies.

November 2013

In November 2013 I noticed the topbar hive was gone. I know it was there in September 2012 but don't know if it survived the 2012/2013 winter or was united into one of the other hives. It's certainly easier to manage your bees if they're all on the same frame type.

August 2014 Single Brood Box

When I went to look on 17th August 2014 there was just the one lonely looking hive consisting of a brood box and a super. I thought maybe the two colonies had been united but a little digging on the web turned up a story of the bees arrival and mentioned that unfortunately their previous colony hadn't made it through the winter, doesn't mention the other colony but perhaps they were united. So this is actually a new colony that arrived in July.

You can see the frame of the Queen Excluder
between the Brood Box and the Super.

Today when I went to have a look it seems the bees' fortunes have changed and they were on a brood and a half. So as well as a regular deep box for the brood there was another super below the Queen Excluder which was also being used for brood rearing. Using a brood and a half is fairly common these days in the UK as the National  sized brood boxes we seem to have standardised with are one of the smaller hive types. Whilst it does mean you have two boxes and twice as many frames to manage and search for the Queen in, it increases the number of cells available in the brood box from 54,000 to 81,000 (the Commercial brood boxes I use have room for about 80,000 cells for comparison). You can tell it's a brood and a half and not two supers by the position of the Queen Excluder.

Brood and a Half

September is a little late to have a super still in place but this year we're having a strangely warm month and I've still got them in place on my hives at the moment too. Whilst I was loitering with phone in hand I decided to zoom in and film a little of the activity at the hive entrance. If you never seen black dots moving about on a screen before you're in for a treat :)

In October last year a new shed appeared on the site which I felt photoworthy. It was an art installation from the 2013 Freedom Festival and here's a snap of it for your delectation:

The Shed.