Queen fumbling

Another week of unseasonably good weather here in the Scottish Borders. We've had temperatures in the high teens (°C) already, with warmer weather predicted for the rest of this week. However, the cold nights — with regular frosts — have been a reminder that, although it might feel as though the season has started, it's still early days.

'Shirtsleeve' weather?

Warm enough to open a hive for the first proper inspections of the season?

Darn right 😄.

In fact, it's been warm enough for me to don my 'Rock God' bandana and sweat profusely in a beesuit.

Good times.

This post was going to be entitled 'A mixed week' as that's what it's been; I've taken advantage of the good weather to scout potential new apiary sites, I've inspected some colonies, prepared my bait hives and — again — studiously avoided building any frames.

And, in between that lot, I've introduced some updates to the website, helped resolve some pesky sign-in issues, and almost finished creating my 'swarm form' to collate data on hived swarms that abscond {{1}}.

I've enjoyed some successes, confirmed I've lost none of my queen-fumbling skills, and suffered my final {{2}} loss associated with Storm Éowyn.

So, a smorgasbord of topics to cover, interspersed with important life-lessons, and profound insights into beekeeping ethos.

Or perhaps not … but there are a range of topics 😉.