My loving wife and confident, told me early this morning my hair looked SCRAGGY and to expect a haircut later today. What will be - Will be. But I was treated to a cup of tea in bed, a small price to pay for straight honesty.
On the radio, the BBC is polluting airwaves with moralist phylisosophical rants that tell everyone, prepared to listen, how to think. Followed by some dreadfull barbershop choir.
Here is my Apiary news letter.
The early December inspection revealed one colony has perished and the hive to be plundered by wasps, and later by numbers of bees from the three remaining hives nearby.
Veroa treatment was carried out on the three surviving hives and all is well with these colonies. I prepared myself with bee suit and respirator and chose a day with very light airs. About 1.5 grams of oxalic acid was vaporized in the base of the hive and the proceedure from start to finish lasted about 10 minutes for each one. As usual each hive behaves slightly differently from the next. One is quite defensive and attack my veil. No.Two is oblivious to the job in hand and continue flying, No. Three is much more sensative to my touching the hive and create a loud buzz at the slightest disturbance. This latter colony is one given me by my brother and a split from early last year - it was rapidly running short of space. Now it looks to be flourishing again and most likely to require splitting once more, come the spring.
Little else to do as regards the bees appart from closing off the veroa undertrays and plugging the extra vent holes. The vaporizor is a simple 12v device with a long handle and heated cup connected to a battery. The respirator mask is worn to avoid breathing in the noxious fumes.
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