The session is still on for today, the plan is to practice on an empty hive with water and then apply Oxalic Acid to 3 colonies.
If we have time we will also feed a couple of colonies with fondant.
The session starts at 10:00 and should be finished by 11:00.
Please remember to park on the main road and walk to the apiary as the field is not suitable for vehicles.
As part of the Apiary closedown yesterday we carried out a full disease inspection on all colonies. A couple showed signs of severe varroa infestation and one had a high Nosema count.
The attached picture shows members preparing and examining samples for Nosema. The samples were from the Association Apiary and members Apiaries.
The forecast is not good for tomorrow, I will send status updates during the day if the weather affects the planned activities.
The Nosema testing will be done under cover so should still proceed no matter what the weather.
We have just had a heavy rain storm at the apiary which means the track is very muddy so please park on the road and walk in.
The rain is easing off so we will go ahead with the session.
Regards
Sean
We had a great session last night with 14 members turning up for the Basic Assessment and Beginner sessions. This year has been a funny year particularly with new queens. Last week one of our hives showed classic supersedure status, single sealed queen cell in middle of brood frame and queen present and laying, so the colony was left to get on with it. In the middle of our session last night the colony tried to swarm, the swarm was found hanging from the underside of the hive stand!
Several members this season have reported new queens not successfully mating, resulting in drone laying queens, this was evident for the second time this season in one of our colonies. The variable weather and early build up seem to be contributing factors.
There still seems to be little flow coming in causing some colonies to be a little defensive, but on the whole the colonies are well behaved and surviving well. However we could do with some prolonged good weather.
