Touch and go

Checked the hive this morning after a long break, caused principally with poor weather coinciding with weekends.

The brood is still relatively small - five frames only, and the half-brood on top ditto. The end frames have not been drawn out at all. While there is good, regular brood being laid and fresh larvae in the cells, it looks fairly touch and go that the colony will survive.

They swarmed (and cast) during a very hot spell, followed by a rotten two or three weeks. At a guess, there might be only 7,000 bees.

And honey? My target is 10kg... The first super is fully drawn comb now, with some capped cells. At a guess, around 25 per cent of the cells are complete. The top super is absolutely untouched (pictured), and yet these frames were inserted a month ago!

Summary: don't let the bees swarm!