Spring Cleaning

Monday, March 23rd 2015

Members of the Richmond and District Beekeeping Association kindly gave up their time this afternoon to give our observation hide a much needed clean. The first job was detaching this from the stand and carefully carrying this outside so work could begin.

Once the doors had been opened the delicate job of removing the old frames began, these were placed in a nuc box while the cleaning was done.

The queen was located quite quickly and separated from the worker bees. She was then marked with a blue dot on her back so she can be easily identified in the hive.

The remaining bees were then swept from the frame into the nuc box using soft goose feathers.

The old comb and propolis was scraped from the frames and glass before they were wiped down with water.

Once this was done the new frames could be installed and the bees returned to their home.

The queen was located and put in the hive to encourage all of the workers to return.

The workers were then shaken from the old frames into the clean hive and the doors quickly shut.

The whole hive was then carried back inside and secured in place. Before we had even had a chance to change out of our suits the bees were returning to the hive and making a start on rebuilding the comb.

We are incredibly grateful to the beekeepers for the time they give us to look after this fantastic educational resource. It will be fascinating over the coming months to watch as the hive develops.

---

(1) Comments:

---

Leave a Comment:

There are some errors in your form.

* Name: Please complete this field, it's required. * Email: Your email address will not be displayed but it's required. URL: * Leave a Comment:

Your email address will not be displayed but it's required.

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

---

Back to Top