Our hive arrived today!

Day 1 Beginning as beginners

The hive came today, we bought a fully assembled one as we don’t have the skills to build it ourselves. It’s in red cedar and our only regret is the bright green queen excluder as it doesn’t quite match the wood. I don’t remember seeing any other bright green bee excluders at the apiary on all the other hives but it was around a fiver compared to the full £14 for a steel one. We are not going to treat it with anything, until at least we get to the apiary and find out that we really should have done. 

We set the whole thing up and it looks impressive and ready to go. 

At least it might be if there was a chance of bees in the near future. The price of a NUC had me over on the floor so we are hoping for a swarm but the wet and colder weather is making this unlikely just at the moment. 

Last night I met a friend in the pub, she was late and when she arrived she told it was because she was having a swarm of honey bees removed from her house by a swarm collector. Ironic. I could have had those, they could have waited in the car whilst we had a quick drink.