Brooke the Bee Charmer,
Anniversary weekend has again brought heat, sunshine and NO RAIN.......
There is an official fire ban for Auckland. I just heard yesterday a guy was fined $1000 for breaking it. Watch out everyone, the fire police are out in force!
I wanted to share the Bee Charmers update with you. As you know, we have set out to achieve so much in the first year on our new lifestyle journey. It's been such a joy sharing our progress with you and to sit down to a plate of food which is 100% from our land was such a thrill.
What's next I hear you say!
Well....Bees of course!
Brooke has nurtured her bees over the past few weeks and today was inspection day where she checked on the progress and development of the hive.
The Bees have been busy at work, building the hive to a very respectable level. The hive has 3 supers (that's the proper terminology for the boxes).The bottom one is full, the middle one is half full and top which has a queen excluder will, very soon fill with honey only. The bottom 2 supers are food and egg laying areas and this is where the Queen lives. It's truly fascinating. Brooke managed to confiscate a wee bit of honey for us to try....amazing, yummylicious. Sweet as!
Some photos of today's 'Operation Bee charmer'
Brooke smoking the hive to calm the Bees down
Top super off, the yellow tray is the Queen excluder, she canna get through from second super, so all honey can be eaten
Excluder off, Brooke about to inspect the frames
Close up of the top of super, check out the amount of Bees
The Bees pouring into the frames, honeycomb visible
All hives inspected, ready to reassemble, time to relax again with a wee puff...
Brooke reckons in about four weeks, we should have our very own honey. Boy, am I looking forward to that.
I do hope the kiwis who read my Blog had a fantastic anniversary weekend, the Aussies...Happy Australia day. To my Dad back in Glasgow..happy 80th Birthday and my Sister Helen, happy Birthday. I love you both.
Maggie.
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