A Beginning, and an End

A Beginning

It was warm on Saturday - just warm enough to open up hive #1 (the only occupied hive) for a quick inspection.  Overall, the bees are doing fine - here's a brief list of observations:

• There were bees on five frames.  For this time of year, that seems good.
   
• The queen (Laura) has made it through the winter.  Also, she is laying - I saw eggs and both un-capped and capped brood.  The capped brood is worker (not drone) so that is also a good sign.
   
• Some of the pupating brood - which should have been capped - weren't, or were only partly capped.  This is a slightly worrying sign, and I shall need to read up on possible causes.
   
• There were a few dead bees in the hive.  Also, it looked like a couple of the larvae were not developing properly.  It didn't look like Sacbrood, but as there were only a couple I couldn't be sure.  I will need to keep an eye on this.
   
• It may just be that the brood is cold (the hive is in almost permanent shade) and when the weather is warmer these problems disappear.
   
• But it could be a sign of something worse.  For now there is no way of knowing.

Still, having done the first inspection, and re-configured the hive to its summer configuration (with the brood box at the bottom and queen excluder directly above it) my beekeeping year has officially begun.  Fingers crossed for good weather, healthy bees and plentiful honey.

An End

Many of my subscribed readers will know about our cat, Patsy.  On Friday, Pats was suddenly taken very ill, and we had to rush her to the vet.  Sadly, this is not a story with a happy ending.  The vet's opinion was that her condition was not going to improve, and in order to save her further distress we made the heartbreaking decision to let Patsy settle down to sleep for the last time.  Pats had been with us since she was approximately 8 years old, and had reached the grand old age of 19½.  A good age for a cat, although I wish she could have lived for ever.  Sadly it was not to be.

This is my very first picture of Patsy, taken just after she'd moved in.  October 2007.

Mrs Beekeeper and I rescued Pats from the mean streets of Willesden Green, when we lived in a ground floor flat.  Later, we moved to a house in Acton, which is when I got my first bees.

My very first bees, just after they'd arrived in a nucleus.  Pats is keeping an eye on them!

Patsy took some interest in the bees, and would sometimes watch from a safe distance when I opened up the hives.  She would also sometimes sit underneath the hives, and I used to wonder whether the sound of buzzing seemed like purring to her.

Patsy watching the bees.

After we moved to Bath, and the hives were located in Gill and Nev's garden, Pats would sometimes follow me along the path from my garden to the apiary.  Provided it didn't interfere with her other plans, of course.  While I got on with my beekeeping, Pats would sniff around the garden, and sometimes climb the willow tree to get a better view.

Climbing the willow tree in the apiary.

Pats was a practically perfect puss.  Our house is too quiet without her, and I shall miss being her butler and her doorman.  I don't know whether we go anywhere after the end.  But if we do, I hope Patsy is somewhere warm and sunny, with a few shady shrubs, some branches to climb up and down, birds to watch, and catnip to sniff.  That was Patsy's perfect day; she had many of them, and she deserved every single one.

Patsy having a perfect day in the garden.